FdA Graphic Design

Program Overview

This two-year full-time program combines lectures, seminars, workshops, and practical assignments to develop students' professional and employability skills in the creative arts industries. Students explore creative skills, work on vocational projects, engage in work-based learning, and complete a final major project that showcases their abilities. Graduates can pursue careers in design and illustration or establish their own businesses.

Program Outline

Outline:

Level 4

• Module 1: WBL: Developing Professional and Employability Skills Part 1 (HRC)
• Focuses on career planning, developing employability and professional skills.
• Explores the creative arts industries to identify a career path.
• Prepares students for progression through networking and self-promotion materials.
• Helps students articulate their skills and knowledge to create an action plan for progression.
• Module 2: Creative Skills Development (HRC)
• Provides an opportunity to investigate and experiment with a wide range of creative skills and techniques.
• Encourages students to research and analyze the work of specialist practitioners.
• Helps students develop their individual creative practice and personal application of creative skills for future projects and modules.
• Module 3: Vocational Project (HRC)
• Provides an understanding of professional practice and processes relevant to the discipline.
• Requires students to work to a scenario and research the context, intended audience, and their expectations.
• Guides students in planning and completing a project to fulfill the vocational brief and manage the creative process from conception to final outcome.
• Module 4: WBL: Developing Professional and Employability Skills Part 2 (HRC)
• Allows students to articulate their personal and professional skills development.
• Involves experiences gained through work-based learning project(s).
• Requires students to produce a written report reflecting and evaluating on their work-based learning activities with effective written communication skills and the application of appropriate academic protocols.
• Includes an action plan to support Work Based Learning Project: Professional Practice Level 5 progression.
• Module 5: Contextual Studies (HRC)
• Provides an opportunity to execute a variety of research methods and techniques.
• Requires students to synthesize their discoveries and findings to demonstrate an understanding of historical and contemporary cultural influences in their creative discipline.
• Involves examining the work produced by creative practitioners during major movements and styles.
• Guides students in thoroughly researching historical and contemporary periods in their discipline and the contextual, cultural, technological, social, economic, and/or political factors that have influenced creative work produced in these contexts.
• Requires students to produce an essay (or negotiated equivalent) demonstrating subject knowledge, research and communication skills, and adherence to academic writing conventions.

Level 5

• Module 6: WBL Project: Professional Practice (HRC)
• Provides an opportunity for students to expand, develop, and apply their knowledge, understanding, and skills learned from their course of study with local
  ational employers in a work-based environment.
• Exposes students to potential employment and study opportunities to develop their future careers.
• Requires students to work with an employer on a project that meets their needs while allowing students to express and develop their professional skills and understanding.
• Guides students in shaping the project through negotiation between themselves, their tutors, and their employer.
• May involve working on the employer's premises, depending on the type of project agreed upon.
• Encourages students to develop the professional skills needed to undertake and communicate a project plan and present outcomes successfully to employers and/or potential clients.
• Module 7: Critical and Cultural Studies (HRC)
• Presents an opportunity for students to examine their discipline in relation to a personally chosen academic issue, theory, or debate in their creative field.
• Requires students to develop their substantiated perspective or argument.
• Provides support from lecturers in choosing a suitable topic to explore and provides academic support in researching and writing an essay or negotiated equivalent.
• Guides students in conducting substantial academic research and producing a literature review.
• Requires students to produce an essay with a persuasive argument or an equivalent that adheres to academic protocols.
• Module 8: Portfolio Development (Graphic Design, HRC)
• Enables students to explore, develop, and apply the professional skills needed to build a strong portfolio of creative work to prepare for progression and/or employment.
• Helps students develop their understanding of professional practice, client/audience needs and requirements, and professional constraints in response to a vocational brief.
• Module 9: Final Major Project (Graphic Design, HRC)
• Represents the culmination of all previous modules studied and projects completed throughout the program.
• Provides an opportunity for students to synthesize all of their previously acquired knowledge and skills to create an ambitious, large-scale self-directed creative project showcasing their capabilities.
• Allows students to select an appropriate platform/context for their work and target it towards specific audiences.
• Draws on previous experiences and allows students to focus their creativity and work in the field they intend to progress or find employment in.

Teaching:

• Combines lectures, seminars, workshops, small group tutorials, coursework, and practical assignments.
• Encourages independent study to consolidate learning and broaden knowledge and understanding of the subject.
• Involves working collaboratively on projects with other higher education courses.
• Provides opportunities to take part in industry live briefs with local community businesses, organizations, groups, and head offices, as well as prestigious national and international design competitions.
• Features a dedicated design studio space and access to state-of-the-art facilities, including workshops and Mac suites, as well as industry-standard resources.
• Has a Creative Enterprise Shop that stocks products designed by students and pops up at local community events, shops, empty shop units, external exhibitions both local and inner London.
• Combines full-time teaching staff with part-time industry professionals who split their time between teaching and working in the creative industries.
• Includes an international study trip, as well as national study trips and visits to businesses, agencies, museums, and galleries.

Careers:

• Graduates can pursue a wide range of career opportunities in design and illustration, particularly in branding, advertising, marketing, editorial design, digital design, and design education.
• Graduates have also gone on to set up their own businesses or continue their professional practice on a freelance, self-employed basis.

Other:

• The program emphasizes personal development and employability within the creative industries.
• Provides excellent employer engagement, live briefs, industry feedback, guest speakers, study trips, and overseas visits.
• Offers an opportunity to gain a nationally recognized qualification in two years of full-time study.
• Provides a progression route to the final year of an appropriate honors degree program at the University of Hertfordshire.

£6165 for the 2024/2025 academic year.