Finding my way back to study
02 July 2026
This article was written by MA Graphic Design (Online) student, Dan.
So, I found myself on an MA at Falmouth. I didn’t go back into education to become something new. I went back to remember something I’d lost.
There’s a point, somewhere along a creative career, where things start to flatten out. You don’t notice it at first — you think you’re just getting better at it all. There’s a contentment that comes with that, a bit more pride in your step. But slowly, over time, it just becomes work. Deadlines. Meetings. Data. What happened?
I realised I’d become efficient at commercial design. I tried to push the boundaries with clients, but I knew it was misplaced. You can’t blame the client for not running with the illegible, ground-breaking logo for their dental floss product, but it would have been nice if that moment of madness had landed.
Sometimes success just means fast. Commercially, things worked. Creatively, something didn’t. Not because I’d stopped caring, but because I wasn’t being challenged in the same way. The answers were often already there — shaped by data, patterns, expectations, experience.
So, where does the creative flow now?
For me, it found its way to Falmouth University's online MA Graphic Design course — where, at the very least, someone would have to listen.
So now I’m a year in. I'm just starting my fourth module, the one before the big one! And in that year things have changed. I no longer see Graphic Design purely through the lens of delivery, the way commercial work can slowly push you towards. I now find myself deconstructing typefaces, understanding why they are the way they are, even individual characters. Even the question mark: a line journeying toward a point not yet fully known. Somewhere along the line, I’d stopped looking this closely.
So, I find myself in a different place now. An analytical place. The tutors often say, “I’ll rein you in if needed”— but so far, that hasn’t happened. I’m starting to wonder if that’s something they say to everyone — or if it’s a quiet kind of challenge.
Being back in education now feels very different to the first time. This isn’t about following a path I’d planned — it’s one I probably should have started earlier but wasn’t ready for at the time.
If you’ve found your way here, reading this, then you’re probably already looking. And that might be the signal. Why not apply? See where it takes you. See if you can find a space where someone might have to rein you in. I’m still trying.