Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication

Program Overview

The Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication immerses students in a studio-based culture, equipping them with the knowledge and skills to navigate the rapidly evolving visual world. Through interdisciplinary subjects and real-world projects, graduates develop proficiency in various design disciplines, enabling them to work collaboratively and address complex problems. The program emphasizes innovation, experimentation, and ethical responsiveness, preparing students for careers in diverse fields related to visual communication.

Program Outline

Degree Overview:

The Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication delves into diverse forms of visual communication across design, culture, and media. Students acquire an in-depth understanding of the histories, practices, and meanings of the visual world. They develop the visual knowledge and skills required to navigate rapidly changing technology, visual media, and culture. Simultaneously, they become proficient in apprehending the unprecedented pace at which visual images, visual technologies, and information data are produced. Students immerse themselves in a practice-oriented, studio-based culture, studying a range of interdisciplinary subjects encompassing typography, interaction, and image-making. They have access to a dedicated, fully-equipped studio space that enhances the learning experience by bringing it closer to the realities of commercial practice. Taught by experts in visual communication, students learn everything from the history and theory of visual culture and technology to producing cutting-edge creative work in digital media, interaction design, photography, editorial design, information visualization, web design, wayfinding, mobile apps, code, machine learning, motion graphics, the internet of things, and 3D technologies such as VR/AR and 3D printing. By exploring both traditional and experimental research methods, students learn to produce conceptually rigorous and socially responsive work. They graduate with the capacity to work across and between disciplines, to articulate design practices and processes, and to apply them to complex problems. Graduates develop industry experience through the degree's emphasis on addressing real-world issues in collaborative and team-based work.

Objectives:

The degree has a hands-on, studio-based culture that is supported by a strong historical and theoretical component. Academic staff encourage both innovation and experimentation in research and practice to help students create work that is conceptually rigorous and ethically responsive. The program offers various interdisciplinary subjects, allowing graduates to enter their professional lives with the diverse knowledge and skills required to work collaboratively and across disciplines. All students work with industry clients on real-world projects and undertake work experience during their degree.

Outline:

First Year

• Autumn Session
• VC Design Studio: The Politics of Image and Text
• VC Design Theory: Critical Approaches to Visual Culture
• Thinking Through Design
• Spring Session
• VC Design Studio: The Ethics of Image and Text
• VC Design Project: Symbols, Systems and Visual Play
• Researching Design Histories

Second Year

• Autumn Session
• VC Design Studio: Narrative, Form and Time
• VC Project: Contexts of Visual Communication
• Select 6 credit points of options
• Spring Session
• VC Project: Typography in Context
• VC Design Studio: Visualising Experience
• Select 6 credit points from the following
• Design Futuring
• The Bio Kitchen
• Global Studio A

Third Year

• Autumn Session
• VC Design Studio: Design Practice
• VC Project: Visual Communication and Emergent Practices
• Select 6 credit points of options
• Spring Session
• VC Project: Research Through Design
• VC Design Studio: Socially Responsive Design

Careers:

Graduates may find employment opportunities in areas related to digital media, publication design, graphic design, interaction design, interactive media design, web design, branding specialist, art director, motion graphics designer, advertising, illustrator, and exhibition designer. Graduates are also equipped with the skills to become writers, researchers, editors, and critics and to apply design thinking in a non-design industry business.