| Program start date | Application deadline |
| 2024-09-01 | - |
Program Overview
MA Graphic Design
Introduction
Discover how visual communication can be a powerful force for change. Enrich and advance your skills in graphic design research, process, and practice, and learn how to use them to change people’s lives for the better.
Student Work
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Student work
Elinor Biggs, "Arnold Schoenberg: Three Points in Time"
See more work by our MA Graphic Design students
Student work
Rats Constructing Labyrinths
Our MA Graphic Design students publish their first pieces of work in a professional-standard book, giving them first-hand experience of practical design and editorial considerations.
Find out more about Rats Constructing Labyrinths
Watch video
60 Second Seminar
Course Leader Nick Jeeves considers where ideas come from.
Ausra Cerkauskaite
Collaborative Fonts
Andrea Malashkova
Memoirs of Taste
Elisha Mundy
Navigating a Tech-Dominated Society
Alice Jenkins
Gem Squash Branding
Javeria Sheikh
What Will People Say?
Negin Armon
Decorative Organic Alphabet
Danielle Rippengill
Patterns of Drag
Jazz Holwill
Adventures in Wonderland
Dennis Amoah
Oware: A Decorative Chromatic Typeface
Christopher Obayusi
Nigerian Alphabet
Ellen Mae Parker
Subtractive Lettering After Peter Altenberg
Jazz Holwill
Ten Things
Jess Angrave
To Equality!
Sherie Poncha
Expanding on the Graphic Novel
Already have an ARU degree? You may be eligible for our Alumni Scholarship for students starting postgraduate courses.
Can graphic design make a real difference to people’s lives? Our MA Graphic Design is unique in evolving your design practice while exploring and developing your role as a creative designer who wants to effect social change.
This could include issues such as behavioural and perspectival change, community cohesion, integration and diversity, and environmental challenges.
Whatever your background, you will advance your visual practice in the key areas of design, including research, textuality, materiality, concept development, visual communication, and typo/graphic innovation – leading to a more individualised, more coherent, and more competitive professional portfolio.
You'll augment this with more advanced knowledge of the complexities of socio-environmental problems, gaining insight into institutional and government structures, learning how to collaborate effectively, and rethinking how creative project development and management can play a central role in society.
This will enable you to gain the confidence to progress your career as a graphic designer, and take an active creative role in social and environmental change-making processes.
As a postgraduate student at ARU, you’ll have access to a dedicated base studio, along with specialist studios including film, photography, and printmaking.
You'll also be able to make use of (and receive training in) all our other creative resources and facilities, including mono, screen, risograph, letterpress, and photographic printing.
Read more
Teaching times (subject to change for )
- Full-time: Mondays and Wednesdays 10am–4pm
- Part-time: Wednesdays 10am-4pm
Studying in our dedicated studios at Cambridge School of Art and at project locations, much of your work will be practice-based. You will take part in live projects, work with an external partner and students from related Masters degrees, as well as proposing and undertaking your own self-directed projects.
Throughout the course you will collaborate and discuss your work with staff, external partners, visiting professionals, and fellow students, giving you an invaluable opportunity to see how others respond to it. All our teaching team are practising designers, design researchers, and artists, so you will hear about the latest news and issues in the industry, as well as getting access to sound careers advice.
At the end of the course you will use the skills you’ve developed to propose, research, and complete a final visual project relating to your own interests within your specialism.
You'll be joining a graphic design course that attracts students from all over the world. You’ll also have access to language support, an International Merit Scholarship, and student offers including a discount on Adobe CC.
Course Options
- 12 months full-time
- 2 years part-time
When do you want your degree to start?
- September
Where do you want to study?
- Cambridge
Key Facts
- STUDY OPTIONS 12 months full-time
- START DATES September
- LOCATION Cambridge
- FEES
- £9,300 UK students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year)
- £18,600 International students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year)
- £9,800 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)
- £19,500 International students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)
Teaching and Assessment
12 months full-time
- Year 1
Year 1
Through a combination of lectures, practical workshops, group discussions and one-to-one tutorials – and supplemented with reflective discussion groups, guest lectures and excursions – you will take part in studio and practice-based learning, including developing and executing individual projects, and team-based learning in a live ‘real world’ project setting.
The Typographic Enquiry and Visual Text modules will focus on developing your creative design practice, while the Design Methods and Contexts module will focus on advanced project building and development. You then will apply this learning to the live module, called Practice Through Partnership. This will give you real-world engagement with socio-environmental issues within an institutional setting – asking you to bring your learning and insights to the project brief as well as allowing you to experience professional structures, demands, and input. It will also give you vital work experience towards future employment, validated by an external partner through feedback and review.
The Masters Project is the culmination of all your learning on the course, requiring you to propose, develop, implement and present an independent project that addresses visual communication solutions for socio-environmental problems, and also demonstrates your ability to innovate and work autonomously.
All your studio, live, and Masters Project developments will involve research methods, contextualisation, and critical reflection through writing, with visual research methods essential to all discipline-specific modules, and design research methods central to the preparation for the live project.
Modules are subject to change and availability.
You will demonstrate your progress through tasks that follow the real-world structure of creative design briefs, including the co-creation of assessment criteria and self-assessment, as well as formative assessment points such as oral presentations. This will allow you to engage with assessment as part of your learning and skills development, rather than simply as an evaluation of successful completion.
Core modules
- Typographic Enquiry
- Design Methods and Contexts
- Visual Text
- Practice Through Partnership
- Masters Project Graphic Design
Module details
Entry Requirements
- A good honours degree (or equivalent), normally in a related subject. Applicants with professional experience are also encouraged to apply.
- If English is not your first language you will be expected to demonstrate a certificated level of proficiency of at least IELTS 6.5 ( Academic level) or equivalent English Language qualification, as recognised by Anglia Ruskin University.
Fees and Paying for University
Tuition fees for UK students (2024/25)
£9,300 UK students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year)
ARU graduates may be eligible for an Alumni Scholarship and get a 20% fee discount.
Fees are payable upfront, in full or in instalments, but there's no need to pay until you've accepted an offer to study with us. Find out more about paying your fees and about postgraduate loans and funding.
Tuition fees for international students (2024/25)
£18,600 International students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year)
You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter
Find out about paying your fees.
Tuition fees for UK students (2025/26)
£9,800 UK students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)
ARU graduates may be eligible for an Alumni Scholarship and get a 20% fee discount.
Fees are payable upfront, in full or in instalments, but there's no need to pay until you've accepted an offer to study with us. Find out more about paying your fees and about postgraduate loans and funding.
Tuition fees for international students (2025/26)
£19,500 International students starting 2025/26 (full-time, per year)
You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter
Find out about paying your fees.
Additional course costs
- Material costs approx. £300.
- Costs for a degree show, again can vary, but consider presentation materials such as high-quality paper, framing and printing.
- Optional student trips vary in cost depending on locations.
Facilities and Showcase
Industry-standard equipment
All our Graphic Design students have access to facilities including:
- the full Adobe Creative suite
- Apple iMacs
- wide-format printers and scanners.
Our team of technical officers will be on hand to offer training and support.
Take a guided tour and meet our students.
Studios and workshops
As well as our dedicated digital facilities and design studios, you’ll have use of:
- a printmaking workshop including etching, screen printing, lithography and relief presses, letterpress studios
- 3D workshops with equipment for woodwork, plastics/vacuum forming, metalwork, plaster, clay, mould making, laser-cutting and 3D printing
- a digital photography lab
- photography studios and darkrooms
- Mac and PC suites.
Lecturers
- Nicholas Jeeves
- Simon Loxley
- Nanette Hoogslag
- Jim Butler
- David Jury
- Lauren Fried
- Will Hill
Careers
Our Masters course will equip you for a career as a freelance graphic designer (editorial, publishing, packaging, UX and UI design, advertising, self-initiated projects), as well as creative roles in areas of graphic design, advertising, branding, design consultancy, media and communication, PR and publishing; and design and consultancy roles in project teams focused on sustainability and socio-environmental development and change implementation in institutes, organisations, governments and companies.
You could also find work as a designer in areas such as type design; typography; sign writing; promotion; book and magazine design; gallery artist or curator; illustrator; animator; motion graphics; UX, UI and experience design; design or gallery technician; web designer; online/social media content provider; and visual creative and director in areas such as interactive storytelling, vlogging, image mapping, interactive books, data-visualisation, design for games, or networked and automated storytelling.
It will also give you a basis for a teaching career, or to continue to a research degree, like our PhD Art and Design, PhD Graphic Design and Typography, or PhD Fine Art. Take advantage of our Alumni Scholarship and save £400 on your fees.
As an ARU student, you can compete for funding to establish your own projects through The Big Pitch and the Andy Wilson bursary.
Nick Jeeves
"A meaningful arts education asks you to bring your own interests with you, and expects you to pursue them and discuss them in the context of the set projects. Each of my art school experiences was like that, and went on to inform my own teaching practice entirely."
Nick Jeeves
Course Leader, MA Graphic Design
Find out more about Course Leader Nick Jeeves
Program Outline
Degree Overview:
Discover how visual communication can be a powerful force for change. Enrich and advance your skills in graphic design research, process, and practice, and learn how to use them to change people’s lives for the better.
Outline:
- The program advances your visual practice in the key areas of design, including research, textuality, materiality, concept development, visual communication, and typo/graphic innovation.
- You'll augment this with more advanced knowledge of the complexities of socio-environmental problems, gaining insight into institutional and government structures, learning how to collaborate effectively, and rethinking how creative project development and management can play a central role in society.
- Key modules include:
- Typographic Enquiry
- Design Methods and Contexts
- Visual Text
- Practice Through Partnership
- Masters Project Graphic Design
Assessment:
You will demonstrate your progress through tasks that follow the real-world structure of creative design briefs, including the co-creation of assessment criteria and self-assessment, as well as formative assessment points such as oral presentations.
Teaching:
- Studying in our dedicated studios at Cambridge School of Art and at project locations, much of your work will be practice-based.
- You will take part in live projects, work with an external partner and students from related Masters degrees, as well as proposing and undertaking your own self-directed projects.
- Throughout the course you will collaborate and discuss your work with staff, external partners, visiting professionals, and fellow students.
- All our teaching team are practising designers, design researchers, and artists.
Careers:
Our Masters course will equip you for a career as a freelance graphic designer (editorial, publishing, packaging, UX and UI design, advertising, self-initiated projects), as well as creative roles in areas of graphic design, advertising, branding, design consultancy, media and communication, PR and publishing; and design and consultancy roles in project teams focused on sustainability and socio-environmental development and change implementation in institutes, organisations, governments and companies.
Tuition Fees and Payment Information:
Tuition fees for UK students (2024/25)
£9,300 UK students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year) ARU graduates may be eligible for an Alumni Scholarship and get a 20% fee discount. Fees are payable upfront, in full or in instalments, but there's no need to pay until you've accepted an offer to study with us. Find out more about paying your fees.
Tuition fees for international students (2024/25)
£18,600 International students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year) Tuition fees for international students (2024/25) £18,600 International students starting 2024/25 (full-time, per year) You can pay your fees upfront, in full or in two instalments. We will ask for a deposit of £4,000 or a sponsorship letter Find out about paying your fees. For postgraduate courses, international ARU graduates are automatically considered for an International Alumni Scholarship, worth £3,000 off first-year fees.
Additional course costs
Additional costs Depending on the direction and ambition of your work, costs can vary. Material costs approx. £300. Costs for a degree show, again can vary, but consider presentation materials such as high-quality paper, framing and printing. Optional student trips vary in cost depending on locations.
