What you will study
The Graphic Design course has an applied approach to the expanding field of graphic design: you'll use our studios and facilities to experiment, exploring new ways to push the boundaries of visual communication.
You'll have plenty of opportunities to participate in live projects and work with the broader design industry: collaboration, teamwork and cross-disciplinary projects are strongly encouraged to reflect professional practice.
The course hosts regular visits to studios, events and conferences both within the UK and further afield.
Modules
Year 1
Year 1 encourages an open-minded and exploratory approach to understanding design. You'll work on individual and team projects, to develop your knowledge of the design process, visual language, typographic principles and core skills.
Core modules
Concept and Challenge
30 credits
This module focuses on the generation of concepts and ideas. The aim of the module is to develop conceptual ability and creative confidence in responding to a range of design and communication challenges. It introduces you to different ways of thinking and generating ideas, with emphasis on currency, appropriateness and dynamism of approach and solution. Project briefs encourage you to expand your knowledge and experiences, challenge assumptions, subvert norms and learn about the role of risk within the creative process.
Visual Vocabularies
30 credits
The aim of this module is to introduce you to the fundamental principles and components of graphic design and visual communication, through a range of projects, workshops, experiments and exercises that explore the relationship between materials, methods, messages and meaning. Key areas include typography and layout, hierarchy and composition, visual thinking and visual language, process and production techniques and context. The emphasis in this module is on developing core competencies that underpin graphic design practice.
Communication and Context
30 credits
The aim of this module is to introduce you to how the designer can engage, interact with and respond to different contexts and varied audiences. These include the personal and professional, geographical and environmental, social and political, commercial and educational, local and global. The emphasis in this module is on developing experience and understanding of how design and communication function in the wider world.
Image & Text - Communication Design History for Graphic Design
30 credits
This module presents a chronological history of graphic design production from the middle of the nineteenth century to the present day in Europe and North America. In doing so, its aim is to consider the different factors that have affected and influenced the production of imagery during this period. The first part of the module focuses on issues of process and practice, and seeks to chart the developing relationship between graphic design and associated professions like illustration, whilst conveying the overarching attitudes and ideas that have coloured artistic and design production and discussion. In the second part of the module you will consider the professional development of design for communication and media, the evolution of ‘popular' mass imagery and the role of changing technologies and techniques, including the moving image and animation, in the development of image and text production and reproduction. Key themes relating to graphic arts and imagery, including the consumption of mass media and imagery, image and consumer culture and the emergence of ‘new' media in art, design and communication, will be explored. The module engages with critical texts to allow you to examine the relationship between theory and practice in design and to gain an understanding of the development of graphic design as a cultural response to modernity. This module will provide a historical and critical framework through image-based lectures, screenings and study visits.
Year 2
Year 2 helps you develop creative and interpersonal skills, used to explore imaginative ways to communicate. You'll develop a particular area of graphic design through self-initiated projects, complementing your studio work. You'll learn about the wide social and cultural context in which graphic designers work, and will collaborate with students from other courses on projects. You'll also gain useful career management skills and will have the opportunity to study abroad or undertake a work placement.
Core modules
Process and Purpose
30 credits
The emphasis in this module is on exploring and understanding the design process, with particular focus on the relationship between research, development and the successful realisation of ideas. The module introduces you to a range of methodologies including design thinking, prototyping and iteration and through varied briefs, workshops and project work, examines how these methods inform design process and effective solutions. Projects are designed to extend design vocabularies and knowledge of materials and visual languages (including typography, photography and moving image) as vehicles for communication and to hone analytical and critical evaluation skills in the resolution and realisation of ideas.
Design Interactions and Innovations
30 credits
The aim of the module is to explore different modes of communication and dissemination. The focus is on the interactive nature of graphic design and visual communications, with emphasis on the way in which designers engage audiences and participators in their practice. The projects in this module encourage you to experiment, embrace risk and develop innovative approaches and solutions. They will introduce you to strategies for extended research and collaboration and develop interpersonal and communication skills. The module requires you to consider how your ideas can be meaningfully applied in appropriate contexts and to relevant audiences. It includes opportunities for you to develop interdisciplinary projects and explore the possibilities of participatory practice.
Design Directions
30 credits
The aim of this module is to develop understanding of the role of the designer and enable you to contextualise your personal design vision and ambition. This includes developing understanding of how to present work in a dynamic and appropriate manner and equipping you with the ability to develop and express opinions and adopt different perspectives in relation to a range of issues and contexts (social, commercial, cultural, environmental and political). The emphasis in this module is on developing knowledge, awareness and a growing confidence in articulating ideas verbally and visually and includes the design of a positioning portfolio in preparation for Level 6.
Critical Issues in Graphic Design: Research and Practice
30 credits
This module builds on the historical and thematic content introduced at Level 4 and emphasises the theorisation of contemporary graphic design practice. A series of lectures, seminars, workshops, tutorials, screenings and visits informs and supports your own emerging research interests and the development of independent visual and academic research skills that cross history/theory and design practice. Lectures and seminars will deepen critical and theoretical engagement with contemporary issues in graphic design. Seminar tasks and assessments are carefully designed to foreground projects that support the location of graphic design as a discipline. Research methodologies are introduced through case studies and practical activities that reflect the issues explored through the module's contemporary content.
Optional year
Many of our students take advantage of the ERASMUS scheme to spend a year studying or working in Europe. We have a network of links with prestigious design institutions.
Over 100 students from the course have made use of the ERASMUS Exchange over the last four years. Graphics students on the ERASMUS programme have studied in 17 different institutions.
Over 50 students have made use of ERASMUS funding to support industrial placements. The ERAMUS programme has supported over 40 students from all over Europe studying at Kingston. The study abroad programme with links in Japan, Korea, and the US supports students studying internationally.
Final year
In your final year, you'll work from a range of briefs, and develop your own, to reflect your personal interests and career aspirations. Some students work a range of areas; others choose to specialise in one. This could be branding, social design, editorial design, film and moving image, photography, advertising and promotion, typography or interactive design. Your interests and self-directed work will inform the written element of the course.
Core modules
Design Studies
30 credits
This module is concerned with the continued exploration and refinement of techniques, themes and tools that will inform an innovative approach to idea generation and insight gathering. The module places emphasis on the completion of a significant body of creative work that strategically reflects the individual's interests, achievements and ambition at Level 6. It requires work which demonstrates diversity of content and imaginative and appropriate realisations of design-led solutions to a professional standard.
Positioning and Presenting Your Design Practice
60 credits
This module is concerned with supporting the practical and strategic development of a professional body of work that accurately reflects the consolidation of an individual's design practice endeavour at level 6. Providing the opportunity to identify personal attributes and strengths, to critically edit and select from project work, to manage, organise and refine that work as required, for effective portfolio presentation across a range of appropriate professional formats. In addition, preparation for employment or postgraduate study will be undertaken, informed by industry professional talks and seminars on relevant self-promotional techniques and approaches.
Dissertation: Research and Reflection
30 credits
Building on the links between research and practice embedded at Level 5, the Critical and Historical Studies (CHS) Dissertation: Research and Reflection module focuses on in-depth research, critical enquiry and reflection on questions and critical issues emerging in students' own practice, and pertinent to the practice of their own discipline.
Over the module, students will initiate and develop an individual research topic; identify and evaluate appropriate archives, bodies of critical literature, visual/material sources and research methods; manage their study time; engage with and respond to tutorial dialogue and peer feedback, and apply critical and analytical skills to produce a 7-8000 word written Dissertation, supported by a series of lectures, seminars and tutorials.
