BA(Hons) Graphic Design

Graphic Design is an exciting and expanding subject area. This course aims to provide a balance between newer digital methods of production and traditional and craft based approaches through a range of different personal and group projects.

During the first two years you will engage with various aspects of graphic design practice in three distinct but overlapping areas: Social Design, Typography and Editorial Design, and Branding and Identity Design. The course asks students to question the changing significance of design and the designer in society, placing emphasis on the social, cultural and environmental aspects of design and the designer as a maker of meaning in visual form.

In the third year this range of conceptual and practical skills are then made manifest in a range of industry led projects and briefs and a major project of your own choosing.

The course lecturing team have done things like written books about Website Graphics for Thames and Hudson, won D&AD yellow pencils, featured in magazines such as Time Out, Eye, Adbusters, Blueprint, The Economist, Art Monthly, NME and The Guardian, we exhibit regularly in galleries across the UK and abroad, in both International Art Biennials and in self-curated shows. We have worked for and with people like Ars Electronica (Austria), Greater London Authority and Mayor’s Office (London), Love Music Hate Racism, Mediamatic (Netherlands), Philips Research, Royal College of Art Research, Sky TV, Stop the War Coalition and the V&A.

We get on the train and visit London all the time (it’s only 30 mins away) to see exhibitions and visit artist and designers’ studios.

We have had these nice people come and talk and work with us recently: Jonathan Barnbrook, John Henry Barac, Art Director from The Guardian, Daniel Eatock, Sam Winston and Graphic Design and Illustration studios: Airside, Kapitza, Thomas Matthews and Tim Sanders.

We like Macs, and we use all this software: Illustrator for drawing things, Photoshop for mucking about with imagery, Fontlab to make fonts, Motion and After Effects to do motion graphics, Final Cut Pro to make videos, InDesign to make magazine and books, Flash, Dreamweaver to do web and interactive stuff and lots more, like learning how to scan and print professionally.

We are in the D&AD college network so you get to show in London in your 3rd year at the D&AD New Blood exhibition and access  to industry professionals through talks and workshops.

Contact:
Course leader:
Noel Douglas
noel.douglas@beds.ac.uk

3rd year Major Project: Ritwick Das, Campaign poster against Female Foeticide in India