- UCAS Code
- W214
- Location
- Falmouth Campus
- Length
- 3 years full-time
- Direct line
- 01326 213730
- Admissions
- admissions@falmouth.ac.uk
Ideas. They're the lifeblood of great design and, when executed with creativity and skill, have the power to change everything. On BA(Hons) Graphic Design we're all ideas people, driven by new thinking and a fresh perspective. It's what makes our award-winning, career-focused course one of the best in the country, triggering a 98% satisfaction rate and producing a host of successful graduates making their mark in the design world.
This course offers you the diversity and range of disciplines demanded by the industry, allowing you to develop expertise in branding, packaging design, editorial, interactive design, advertising, information design, digital moving image and more.
You'll be continually encouraged to develop your creativity, take risks and think both laterally and imaginatively so that you can understand and fulfil the needs of a design brief. Through a series of workshops, presentations and tutorial support, you'll gain the skills and confidence to articulate your ideas across a wide range of media.
Our enviable reputation means we attract some of the top names from the design industry as guest lecturers – including Sir John Hegarty, Jonathan Barnbrook and Vaughan Oliver – organise study trips to many leading design consultancies and provide great work placement opportunities. Professional practice workshops, live projects and showcase events will further your understanding of the industry so you're ready to launch your career when you finish your studies. Our graduates are in demand; within a few months of graduation a very high percentage of them are showcasing their creative talents within the design industry, or pursuing postgraduate study.
To find out more about our course and see more of our work, please visit our website: graphicsfalmouth.com
How is the course taught
Focused around a vibrant studio-based experience, and taught by dedicated and industry-active staff, the course covers important design themes and contains briefs to be tackled in both visual and written form. Weekly group tutorials, seminars and regular individual tutorials will provide the platform for feedback; presenting work in progress, developing your confidence in discussing your work and contextualising the role of design within society.
Careers
- Work as part of a design consultancy
- Set up your own consultancy or work freelance
- Careers in multidisciplinary design consultancies or as specialists within the areas of packaging design, branding, advertising, television graphics, interactivity, exhibition design, magazine and book design, and animation
Assessment
Assessment is through coursework and studio assignments, as well as your final year dissertation
Experience you'll get
- Work placement opportunities and top industry guest speakers
- Live project opportunities and external briefs set by designers
- Professional practice workshops
- Industry visits and showcase student events
By choosing to study for a degree in Graphic Design at Falmouth you will:
- Join a course that has produced 200 national and international student design award winners and commendations in the past seven years, including first prize Yellow Pencils at the D&AD Global Student Design Awards, Royal Society of Arts winners, successes in the ISTD awards, Young Creative Network awards, Penguin Book awards, winners at the Art Directors Club New York Awards and European Design awards.
- Develop design skills across a range of disciplines demanded by the industry, allowing you to gain expertise in branding, packaging design, editorial, interactive design, advertising, digital moving image and more.
- Be continually encouraged to develop your ideas, take risks and to think both laterally and imaginatively so that you can understand and fulfil the needs of a wide range of design challenges.
- Present your work to the industry through the D&AD New Blood exhibition and our own exclusive annual event at the Royal Society of Arts in London.
- Benefit from being taught by enthusiastic and dedicated staff whose primary focus is teaching and who can collectively provide expert guidance across the wide range of specialisms within the subject.
- Be based at the inspiring Falmouth Campus, with its dedicated design studios.
- Be part of an ambitious well-structured course with a proven track record of its graduates succeeding at the highest level in the design industry.
- Have the opportunity to go on self-funded study trips and gain work placements with one of our many industry contacts.
Interview and selection process
All suitably qualified applicants will be invited to interview.
The interview process will last for approximately three hours and will include a short talk by teaching staff, a tour of the department and an individual interview. During the individual interview, you will be asked to present your portfolio and sketchbooks and discuss your interests and passion for the subject.
A portfolio can contain a broad range of art and design work, rather than purely graphic design work, and should demonstrate your strengths and interests.
We would like to see evidence of your visual language skills in the quality of your drawing and mark-making, your use of composition across a range of media (including photography), colour, letterforms, and materials. We would also like to see evidence of your understanding of design process through investigation, ideas generation, experimentation, lateral thinking and visual development. We also expect you to be able to critically reflect on the needs of a project and show diverse sources that have inspired and informed your projects and your study.
At this stage it's not all about ‘polished' work. We are looking for students with potential, enthusiasm and who enjoy collaboration with others as part of their working process.
Interviews are currently taking place.
Location: Falmouth Campus
Work placements
The course has developed an extensive range of contacts in the industry in order to provide placement opportunities for our second year students. Coordinated by our own placement tutor, we offer a variety of opportunities, many of which are with leading design consultancies across the country. Here is a selection of some of the companies who have taken students on a placement recently:
- NBC Universal Studios, London
- Coley Porter Bell, London
- Purpose, London
- Jones Knowles Ritchie, London
- Gendall Design, Falmouth
- Pentagram, London
- Smith & Milton, London
- Brand Union, London
- Open Agency, London
- Music, Manchester
- Allies, London
- Carter Wong Design, London
- Nixon, Penzance
- ASHA, Cheltenham
What you'll do
Stage 1
Supported by our course team, you'll learn how to go about designing, and how to tell a story visually; with workshops, assignments, peer critiques and work-in-progress reviews to build your confidence and capabilities. Alongside this, lectures and seminars will boost your understanding of graphic language and communication.
Stage 2
Your self-led study will increase as you develop your confidence, creativity and skills as a designer. You'll explore branding, typography and problem solving with live briefs, self-initiated assignments and more. You'll also attend design-led workshops from visiting agencies such as Pentagram, Fitch and Trapped in Suburbia, and have the chance to gain direct industry experience with placements in leading design organisations.
Stage 3
With industry experience behind you, your identity as a designer will take shape, as you complete studio projects, competition entries and live briefs. You'll have the chance to exhibit at the D&AD New Blood exhibition and our own exclusive event at the Royal Society of Arts. You'll complete your dissertation and work with course staff to ready yourself for employment, with professional practice workshops, CV development and interview techniques.
