Graphic Communication Design (Top-Up) BA (Hons)

Course Content

• Course Details

  Our Graphic Communication Design (Top-Up) BA (Hons) provides you with the vital skills and knowledge needed to further your understanding of visual communication, working in the creative industries, or potentially progressing onto master’s study. Having already developed the skills and qualifications for years 1 and 2 on your previous course, in year 3 with us you’ll be able to focus on expanding your conceptual and technical skills.

  We explore Graphic Communication Design through commercial, cultural, social, and environmental issues via a mix of practical work, live industry projects, critical study and design competition briefs. You’ll be taught in various ways including small and large group teaching, workshops and individual tutorials, lectures, group presentations and seminars, and we do this through a combination of face to face and online teaching, exploring digital media and software alongside craft skills such as print making, 3D and photography.

  We look at 4 areas on the Graphic Communication Design Top-Up course, these are –

  Commercial – here we develop your technical skills and practice the principals of graphic design and apply these to commercial projects and briefs – this includes understanding how audiences think and respond and how we approach and manage the design process to create effective solutions.

  Professional and Critical – here we expose you to the wider creative industries, the various roles and skills needed to work as a professional designer and how the business of design works. Additionally, we explore the development of visual culture and how it’s affected us and our world, and how we and others see and understand the world around us. Along with this, you develop your research abilities and your analytical and reflective writing skills.

  Experimental – here we encourage your individual responses to themes and issues that are not commercially focused – we challenge you to use your visual skills be used to convey complex and thought-provoking messages, and we develop your ability to see differently, think differently and explore different mediums and formats.

  Changemaker – here we focus on Graphic Communication Design’s role as a force for positive change through projects that explore social, ethical and environmental concerns. You are encouraged to develop empathetic and mindful approaches using your creative skills for progress and transformation.

  At the heart of our Top-Up programme is the creation of visual ideas that convey a message – this could be to sell, entertain or solve a commercial problem, or to expand understanding and awareness of an issue, or to influence and persuade people to see or think about something in a different way.

  We do this through considered, well researched and tested design solutions and use targeted technologies and channels to reach out and make a difference – the successful communication of a message is determined by its effective design; this is how we influence, create an emotion, and have impact.

  What do our students go on to do with these skills?

  After graduation, our students go on to work in a wide range of creative roles; some go on to work in agencies, some work as freelancers, some start their own businesses, producing work across branding, advertising, illustration, interactive and online design, UX and UI, editorial and publishing, film and moving image, packaging and photography. Additionally, some go on to master’s education to further enhance their skills and knowledge.

  There is a wide range of career and master’s options for you to explore, so during year 3, we will help you to identify and focus in on what your skills and interests are. Through your modules and the teaching and support from your lecturers, you will have had the opportunity to work on a detailed career plan that will set you on your path.

  Follow us on Instagram @gcd.uon

  Follow us to see what we are doing and have done over the last few years., including posts and stories from this year’s successful degree show, our ‘Changing Futures Week’ events, our competitions wins, and student highlights and features.

  Student highlights

  Our students are regularly shortlisted for the Penguin Cover Design Award and this year was no different. We had 2 students shortlisted – Evy Diepenbroek and Karla Ayree for the Adult Fiction category, with Karla beating hundreds of fellow designers from across the country to win the prestigious national prize.

  Karla was named winner at the awards ceremony in June for her cover design for ‘Girl, Women, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo.

  

   

  Evy Diepenbroek’s design was shortlisted for the same prize

  

  We also had success in the D&AD New blood competition last year with our 2022 graduating student Laura Tucker winning a pencil for her Giff Gaff Recycling animation.

  Both the Penguin Cover Design and the D&AD The New Blood Awards are an invaluable introduction to the reality of working in the creative industry and entering gets your work seen by some of the biggest names in the creative industry. Over many years, students on our Graphic Communication Design BA (Hons) course have been regular winners.

  Please note the modules shown here relate to the academic year 24/25. The modules relating to the academic year 25/26 will be available from June 2025.

  • Stage 1
    • Preparing for industry (20 Credits)
      Module code: 2DD3012

      Status: Compulsory
      The purpose of this module is for students to confidently define their post-graduation trajectory. Students will develop and apply interpersonal skills and industry knowledge to a range of work models from the evolving creative industries. This module concludes with a detailed presentation outlining the students' professional intentions.
    • Professional Portfolio (40 Credits)
      Module code: 2DD3013

      Status: Compulsory
      This module enables students to establish a professional graduate portfolio through a series of industry-related briefs covering a range of contemporary design practices. Impactful ideas targeted at defined audiences are central to this module, with students encouraged to take risks and explore new and emerging ways of working and communicating.
    • Major Project (60 Credits)
      Module code: 2DD4007

      Status: Compulsory
      The purpose of this module is to develop a progressive and impactful body of practice and writing, based on thorough critical research into an area of personal interest within contemporary visual culture. Outcomes will form a significant part of the graduate's portfolio, showcasing specialisms within contemporary graphic communication design.

  Schedule

  Your taught study will be a combination of lectures, seminars, workshops and technical demonstrations, usually for 15 hours per week, depending on your level of study. In addition, we recommend that you spend around 10 hours per week in self-directed study time. Outside of taught time, you will have access to technical facilities and studies.

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• FAQs

  How will I be taught on Graphic Communication Design (Top-Up) BA (Hons)?

  You will be taught through a variety of methods such as;

  • Project briefs (staff-set/self-set /industry/competition)
  • Individual, group tutorials and seminars
  • Workshops/demonstrations
  • E-tivities/Active Blended Learning / Online activities
  • Group critiques and presentations
  • Visiting speakers and Industry Guests

  You will be taught by your core team of Senior Lecturers, Lecturers and Associate Lecturers – and you have contact with them week in, week out. It is these lecturers that deliver the majority of your taught experience, set project briefs, assess your work and lead study visits.

  How will I be assessed?

  You will be assessed through a range of graphic communication design assignments, design competitions and live projects [producing individual work as well as working in groups] including design work submitted through portfolio presentations [these can be printed, online, digita or physical], oral presentations and pitches, written work and self-assessments.

  Are there any suggested reading and resources?

  Yes, we suggest looking up the following titles for some inspiration:

  Books:

  • Graphic design: a user’s manual – Adrian Shaughnessy
  • The A-Z of visual ideas: how to solve any creative brief – John Ingledew
  • Design History, A Students’ Handbook – Hazel Conway
  • Know your onions: graphic design – Drew De Soto
  • The art of looking sideways – Alan Fletcher
  • On Creativity – John Hegarty
  • Graphic Design: A New History – Stephen Eskilson

  Magazines:

  • Creative Review
  • Eye: the international review of graphic design
  • Juxtapose
  • Baseline: international typographics journal
  • Aesthetica
  • Computer Arts Magazine
  • Adbusters

  Web:

  • Its Nice That (web)
  • Computer Arts magazine / CreativeBloq
  • Design inspiration – Design Inspiration

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