Introduction to the University of Kent

The University of Kent is a prestigious institution located in the United Kingdom, offering a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs. One of the programs offered by the university is the Graphic Design BA (Hons) course.

Overview of the Graphic Design BA (Hons) Course

The Graphic Design BA (Hons) course at the University of Kent is a three-year full-time program that focuses on the development of visual communication skills, creative thinking, and technical expertise. The course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of graphic design principles, theories, and practices, as well as the opportunity to explore their own creative vision and style.

Course Structure

The course is structured into three stages, each with its own set of compulsory and optional modules. The modules are designed to provide students with a broad understanding of graphic design, including typography, image-making, branding, and motion graphics.

Stage 1 Modules

• Design Fundamentals: This module introduces students to the fundamental principles of graphic design, including visual literacy, design processes, and technical skills.
• Design Perspectives: This module explores the historical and contemporary contexts of graphic design, including the social, cultural, and economic factors that shape the discipline.
• Play & Storytelling: This module focuses on the use of play and storytelling in graphic design, including the development of creative concepts and visual narratives.
• Making your Mark: This module introduces students to the technical skills required for graphic design, including image-making, typography, and print production.
• Working with Typography: This module explores the principles and practices of typography, including the history, theory, and application of type in graphic design.

Stage 2 Modules

• Brand Experiences & Interactions: This module focuses on the development of brand identities and experiences, including the creation of visual systems, interactions, and user interfaces.
• Wayfinding: This module explores the design of wayfinding systems, including signage, navigation, and environmental graphics.
• Supergraphics: This module introduces students to the design of large-scale graphics, including murals, billboards, and environmental installations.
• Design Agency: This module provides students with the opportunity to work on live briefs and industry-set challenges, developing their skills in design, pitching, and presentation.
• Designing with Data: This module explores the use of data in graphic design, including data visualization, information design, and statistical analysis.

Stage 3 Modules

• Creative Ambition: This module focuses on the development of students' personal creative ambitions, including the creation of a professional portfolio and the pursuit of career goals.
• Design Ethics: This module explores the ethical considerations of graphic design, including the social, environmental, and cultural impacts of design decisions.
• Discover & Define: This module introduces students to the design process, including research, concept development, and prototyping.
• Develop & Deliver: This module provides students with the opportunity to develop and deliver a major design project, including the creation of a design brief, concept development, and final presentation.

Entry Requirements

The typical offer for the Graphic Design BA (Hons) course is 96-112 UCAS points, including Art & Design or a related subject at B. International students are required to have a good level of English language, equivalent to B2 on CEFR.

Fees and Funding

The tuition fees for the Graphic Design BA (Hons) course are Ł9,790 for UK students and Ł23,500 for international students. The university offers a range of scholarships and funding opportunities to support students with their studies.

Career Opportunities

Graduates of the Graphic Design BA (Hons) course can pursue a range of career opportunities, including graphic designer, art director, UX/UI designer, motion designer, brand strategist, illustrator, creative producer, design researcher, and freelance practitioner.

Research Areas

The University of Kent has a strong research culture, with a focus on interdisciplinary collaboration and innovation. The graphic design course is part of the university's School of Arts, which has a range of research areas, including:

• Socially engaged design
• Sound and environment
• Design ethics in the age of AI

Facilities and Resources

The university has a range of facilities and resources to support students with their studies, including:

• Specialist design studios
• Dedicated workshops
• Laser-cutting facilities
• Printing press
• Reproduction and large format printing options
• Digital workshop with 3D printers and projectors

Conclusion

The Graphic Design BA (Hons) course at the University of Kent is a comprehensive and creative program that provides students with the skills, knowledge, and expertise required to succeed in the graphic design industry. With its strong focus on visual communication, creative thinking, and technical expertise, the course is ideal for students who are passionate about graphic design and want to pursue a career in this field.

Course structure

Duration:

3 years full-time (4 with a year abroad/in industry), 6 years part-time

The following modules are indicative of those offered on this programme. This listing is based on the current curriculum and may change year to year in response to new curriculum developments and innovation

Stage 1

Stage 2

Year in industry

Year abroad

Stage 3

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Stage 1

Compulsory modules currently include

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This module will provide a broad introduction to the important key people and ideas in the development of visual communication and culture from the twentieth century to the present day. This will include an exploration of designers, artists and philosophers that have been significant in transforming our seeing and thinking.

Find out more about DESG4013

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This module will introduce the attributes and language of typography. It will examine the principles of type and how it enables an idea to be written and given visual form. The module will examine the breaking of conventions and will encourage type/letterform experiments where function and form are challenged and where the concept of type as image is explored.

There will be the opportunity to pursue two and three dimensional outcomes as text is increasingly sculptural and integrated within architecture.

Find out more about DESG4014

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During this module students will experiment and test the flexibility and fluidity of digital images, by drawing on previous projects (Photography & Imaging) students will work to produce a short film of both still and moving images for editorial production. Students will have the opportunity to explore the relevant industry software programmes to produce an online and physical catalogue of their digital imagery. The final project is directed by the student's specialism, 2D print or screen, 3D environmental (e.g. projection or sculptural) and 4D time based.

Find out more about DESG4015

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The story or narrative is at the core of the majority of advertising and marketing campaigns as well as discrete design outcomes. This module will introduce the identification of narrative elements from a range of sources, understanding narrative structures with particular emphasis on storyboarding & script writing, often a combination of both. Exploring the hand drawn, collage and photomontage, utilising a rich range of techniques. Final projects can take experimental adventurous interpretations of a storyboard, including 2D & 3D comics, graphic novel book form, 3D structures and performance space (including live action/animation of space). Knowledge and skills gained on this module will be transferable to creative projects across the programmes.

Find out more about DESG4016

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This module will provide a broad introduction to the important key people and ideas in the development of design culture from the twentieth century to the present day. This will include an exploration of designers, artists and media processes that have been significant in transforming our seeing and thinking.

Find out more about DESG4017

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In this module students will be introduced to creative methodologies that demonstrate a strategic response to resourcing the communication problem/issue/brief.

It will consider the selection and shaping of ideas and concepts that advance intentions and solutions. The module will examine the responses and decisions that enable the articulation of an appropriate outcome.

Find out more about DESG4018

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During this module students will produce digital imagery, predominately still images by responding to the world around them. Students will experiment and learn skills in the relevant industry software to enhance and manipulate imagery ready for production. Students will explore presentation techniques of photography and imaging and consider alternative ways to present and disseminate imagery and photography in the digital age.

Find out more about DESG4019

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On this module students will be introduced to a range of 2D design techniques, processes, essential skills, and understanding to enable them to quickly and confidently communicate their own design concepts and solutions in response to creative exercises and briefs. The skills taught on this module will be required, developed and deployed on many other modules throughout the programme, and should be considered essential core skills. Graphics students will work in an open studio to establish a design ethos, where design is studied and seen to operate in the digital realm, on the page and spatially and environmentally in the physical realm.

Find out more about DESG4020

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Stage 2

Compulsory modules currently include

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How we play and interact with design is paramount to understanding user experience and engagement whether on mobile phones or in virtual environments. All designers must be comfortable in their ability to explore notion of play and interaction; in this module students will learn how to critically analyse users' needs and define user experience through systematic research principles. They will also design and make final outcomes using play and interaction methods. Underpinning the practical work, we will consider how digital media and interaction design plays within our lives, exploring how people use and respond to emerging technology and media.

Students will emerge equipped with adaptable practical and theoretical skills to allow them to design for current and future trends, whether creating for screen-based media or interactive experiences. You will gain experience in the use of computer-based authoring tools to design for audio, video, 2D and 3D experiences to design interactive interventions.

Find out more about DESG5001

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This module focuses on embedding employability within a design curriculum in a seamless and meaningful way within the context of students' future working environments. Students will identify their own strengths and talents, form their own creative agencies and pitch for work to selected live brief clients. The aim of this module is to evaluate critically and develop a focused understanding of the commercial concerns of the creative business sector and to show their own work in a public space. The role of freelance, self-employed creative, the financial demands placed upon designers and the expectations of employers will be explored. It is anticipated that students will understand the changing creative job market and be well placed to make appropriate careers decisions accordingly. Several external talks and visits will focus on design jobs within the design sector and will provide a useful contact network for future internships and work experience.

Find out more about DESG5003

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This module explores the wider context and application of branding and identity as applied to products and experiences. Starting from an exploration of historical, social, cultural and commercial contexts students will then undertake a series of briefs that enable them to apply their design skills to external spaces and interiors, packaging, moving image, storytelling and narrative. It will encourage initiative, exploration and innovation. The skills developed include audience engagement through the development of brand stories, cross cultural communication and brand personalities, the potential for societal change and for audience engagement through a range of technologies.

Find out more about DESG5005

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The physical world is complex and yet most people navigate their way around it with ease. Wayfinding and signage greatly impacts how people engage with and experience indoor and outdoor spaces, and is important for architects, designers, and event organisers when planning projects. Designers find solutions to wayfinding and sign design while simultaneously reflecting and creating brand expressions.

This module will cover how to work with human behaviour, including the consequences of bad way finding systems. On a practical level students will undertake site visits, study the spaces to be handled, engage in ethnographic research, analyse visitor traffic, different visitor types and accessibility, learn how to apply readability, legibility and positioning for signs, locational, directional and directory signs. Students will plan and create signage and information design that allows a user the best experiences of outdoor events, buildings and exhibitions.

Through a series of workshops, students will learn to design effective wayfinding strategies, and receive guidance about issuing production information to manufacturers.

Find out more about DESG5006

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Year in industry

You can extend your studies from three to four years by taking the Year in Industry option (this option is not available if you are studying on a part-time basis). This provides the opportunity to gain relevant workplace experience as part of your programme of study. You can also increase your contacts and network so that you can hit the ground running when you graduate.

The Year in Industry is taken in addition to your standard undergraduate programme and normally falls between your second and final year. You typically work on a placement for the full calendar year, and salary and holiday entitlements vary according to the employer. The year is assessed on a pass/fail basis through employer feedback and a written report that you submit. Students also have the option to take a Term in Industry.

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Year abroad

Going abroad as part of your degree is an amazing experience and a chance to develop personally, academically and professionally.  You experience a different culture, gain a new academic perspective, establish international contacts and enhance your employability.

You spend your year abroad at one of our partner universities. Places and destination are subject to availability, language and degree programme. To find out more, please see Go Abroad.

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Stage 3

Compulsory modules currently include

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This module introduces students to independent research project development and structures. It will cover academic and practice research and the relationship between the two, how each area can inform, develop and progress the other. The module will enable students to develop either an extended individual design practice project, or a dissertation (Extended Essay) on contemporary or historical developments in design and communication culture the following term. Students will engage with independent and critical thinking and advance their research skills.

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This module takes the form of an individual research study. Students who wish to take the module should approach a member of staff with a proposal in advance of module registration, during the Spring Term of the previous academic year. Students pick a research topic of their choice; however, students are only allowed to register for the module with the permission of a staff member who has agreed to supervise the project, and who has the expertise to do so. The tutor will oversee the development of the extended research essay (dissertation).

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Museums, cultural and heritage centres and managed visitor experiences are traditionally interpretive environments with many varied and complex stories to tell. This module examines the theory and practice behind the history, development, and future trends of graphic communication in these ‘environments’, exploring how a variety of traditional and new technologies and techniques can be used to communicate content in time and space to an audience. Particular attention will focus on the use of multimedia to bring ‘stories’ to life, providing a stimulating, multi-sensory experience that can entertain and educate visitors of all ages and across all cultures.

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This module provides students with an opportunity to design and realise a major graphic design project (or coherent extract thereof) derived from their own developing interests and skills. Students will take significant control over the brief, their input and the outcome, affording a significant independent experience.

For the duration of the module lecturers act as art directors/supervisors and students negotiate their project brief and receive ongoing support. This project is a calling card for future employers; discussions of subject, context (client, location and audience) and realisation are crucial to the process.

The module asks students to develop their practice-based work towards a final outcome which may take the form of a combination of 2D graphic campaign (print/digital), moving image (motion graphics) project, a site intervention/transformation (material or digital) or proposal/visualisation exhibition/presentation - it will be substantial and multi-faceted.

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Teaching and assessment

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Contact hours

For a student studying full time, each academic year of the programme will comprise 1200 learning hours which include both direct contact hours and private study hours.  The precise breakdown of hours will be subject dependent and will vary according to modules.  Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

Methods of assessment will vary according to subject specialism and individual modules.  Please refer to the individual module details under Course Structure.

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Careers

University of Kent

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Overview:

The University of Kent is a public research university located in Canterbury, Kent, England. It is known for its commitment to ambition and providing a supportive environment for students to thrive.

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Services Offered:

Guaranteed Campus Accommodation:

First-year students are guaranteed a place in campus accommodation upon accepting their offer.

Free Gym and Fitness Membership:

First-year students receive a free sport and fitness membership.

Campus Tours:

Prospective students can book tours to explore the campuses and learn more about accommodation options.

Clearing Support:

The university provides comprehensive support for students applying through Clearing, including a dedicated website with information and resources.

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Student Life and Campus Experience:

The university emphasizes a vibrant student life with opportunities for community building, fitness, and social activities. Students can expect a welcoming and supportive environment.

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Key Reasons to Study There:

Guaranteed Campus Accommodation:

Ensures a comfortable and convenient living experience.

Free Gym and Fitness Membership:

Promotes a healthy lifestyle and fosters a sense of community.

Comprehensive Clearing Support:

Provides reassurance and guidance for students applying through Clearing.

Vibrant Student Life:

Offers a range of opportunities for social interaction, personal development, and community engagement.

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Academic Programs:

The context does not provide specific details about academic programs.

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Other: