Studying our Graphic Design BA (Hons) course will equip you with the in-depth knowledge and skills to creatively use communication design skills, in graphics, illustration and animation on exciting taught and self-driven projects in a beautiful old factory in Luton’s Hat District located in the Creative Quarter, that is 20 minutes from Central London. With a particular focus on graphic visual design, you will have various opportunities to express your creativity in our Communication Design: Exploring Materials and Methods unit. Here, you will get to explore a range of skills, methods and material processes for communication design and subsequently use these technical skills for image making and storytelling. You will then get to practice this knowledge in our Communication Design: Developing Materials and Methods unit by researching, testing and experimenting with creative production methods and material processes for communication design. This is closely linked to our Thinking Through Making unit that will encourage you to take creative risks and develop a graphic aesthetic sense through using various technologies, software, print, RISO, web, AR and different work processes and ideas. 

In core areas of art study, you will be introduced to key theories on art and design as well as its effect on culture and society in our Context and Ideas unit. To further deepen your insight on contemporary art and design practices, our unit in Critical and Creative Contexts will allow you to explore issues and critical debates in the field which will be particularly useful for your Final Major Project: Graphic Design. This unit is a brilliant opportunity for you to pursue your creative interests and channel it into a piece of work for public display. Another area of project work involves our Collaborative Enterprise unit, where you will work to apply your knowledge and expertise gained throughout this course into a collaborative interdisciplinary project. To help you with the research and analytical skills needed for project work, our unit in Context and Meaning will allow you to critically examine a range of texts on art, design and visual culture while placing this theory and practice into global contexts.  

To diversify your skill set, our unit in Introducing Studio Practice will allow you to develop discipline-specific skills and experience such as independent learning, self-confidence, collaborative working and reflection, and apply them in other areas of study. To prepare you for your career, our unit in Creative Futures will provide you with the skills and knowledge you need for a professional creative role. Whether you aspire to become a freelance designer or to pursue further study, this unit will support you in developing a career that suits your ambitions and interests. Furthermore, this unit will encourage you to participate in live projects, competition briefs and other group work while developing your creative persona online, in exhibition and elsewhere. To add to this, our unit in Developing Professional Practice will teach you to incorporate independence and professionalism in the presentation of your work while also developing your confidence to take creative risks through live projects solving real world needs, from local community engagement to global problems, such as the climate emergency.  

Context And Ideas

This unit introduces Context and Ideas in Art and Design, exploring visual culture, ideologies and interpretations of historic and contemporary practice. You will consider research methods to help you analyse art and design theory and practice. Lectures and seminars will introduce key ideas in art and design, and their effects on culture and society, allowing you to reflect on how they impact and influence your own studio practice. You will develop your academic study skills.

Communication Design: Exploring Materials And Methods

This unit will introduce you to essential practical and critical skills involved in Communication Design. It will introduce you to new ways of considering materials and methods in the production of your work.

The aim of this unit is to provide an opportunity to explore, test and experiment using a range of skills, methods and material processes for Communication Design. You will apply technical skills to support image-making and story-telling. This unit will help you learn practical and critical skills that are fundamental in the development of your studio practice.

Introducing Studio Practice

This unit introduces you to Art and Design study in a higher education environment. It will introduce you to the learning resources available to you and the types of learning in which you will engage. An important aspect of the unit is to lay the foundation for your own personal approach to study.

This will include helping you to develop as an independent learner with the self-confidence to reflect upon personal performance and identify areas for action.

There will be a strong relationship between the learning involved in this unit and its application to other units on the art and design courses.

Over the duration of this unit, you will experience cross discipline learning and development, collaborative working, as well as discipline specific skills and experience.

Thinking Through Making

This unit introduces you to practical working methods in Art and Design - where you will be encouraged to develop a personal understanding of your discipline through testing, experimenting and making.

The unit will enhance your ability to communicate and ‘play’ in a range of formats the capacity to be creative and to develop an aesthetic sensibility through engagement with technology, processes and ideas.

Using a practice-based approach you will be encouraged to take creative risks, allowing you to develop practice that enriches your work, giving you the freedom to explore and discover creative processes that are both discipline and non-discipline specific.

You will learn how to test and translate your ideas using a range of media that articulate and communicate visual ideas and develop an understanding of your practice.

Collaborative Enterprise

This unit allows you to apply your acquired knowledge and expertise in your discipline, to a collaborative interdisciplinary project.  

The work and learning of this unit are seen as an important link between your academic work and the professional world.

You will negotiate your learning with your supervising tutor who will take account of your agreed role within group scenarios. The unit tests your abilities to work both independently and collaboratively in the wider professional community.

Communication Design: Developing Materials And Methods

The aim of this unit is to provide an opportunity to research, test, experiment, explore and learn to manage creative risk.

You will establish a focused and effective Communication Design studio practice using creative production methods. You will investigate subject specific skills, methods and material processes for communication design. You will select and develop technical skills and integrate working methods to support problem solving and design thinking.

This unit consolidates and develops practical and critical skills involved in communication design introduced in level 4.

Developing Professional Practice

This unit consolidates your development and understanding of subject specific materials and methods, and encourages you to consider their application to professional practice.

You will take into account commercial, cultural and social contexts in response to projects and visual enquiry, and develop the confidence to take creative risks in your practice.

There is an increasing emphasis on your portfolio and exhibition practice, to further encourage independence and professionalism in the presentation of your work.

Context And Meaning

This unit builds upon knowledge gained at level 4, to place theory and practice into global contexts. You will examine a range of critical texts and practices related to art, design and visual culture.

You will further develop your research and analytical skills, so that you can engage with the contexts and meanings that underpin your own practice, and inform the way you critically evaluate the development of your creative work.

Creative Futures

At level 6, you will be preparing yourself for a professional creative role. This unit provides an environment in which you will prepare for a professional life after your degree, helping you to develop creative futures that focus your ambition and interests. This may include preparation for: becoming a freelance artist, designer or maker; working independently, in a co-operative, agency or enterprise; teaching or pursuing further study.

The unit will encourage you to participate in live projects, competition briefs or collaborative teamwork.

As part of professional practice, you will further develop your ability to present yourself and your professional portfolio.  You will learn how to create relevant marketing and self-promotional material and engage with online media to promote your professional identity, concepts and products.

Critical And Creative Contexts

This unit offers you the opportunity to deepen your insight of contemporary art and design practices, issues and critical debates. Programmes of tutorial support and self-determined study will help you to develop a context, in which you can place your emerging practical work and underpin your major project with a critical and contextual rationale.

The unit will support you in developing and implementing research strategies in the context of your Final Major Project – your investigations and growing knowledge will further inform your final project.

Final Major Project: Graphic Design

This unit will give you the opportunity to pursue your personal creative interests and artistic concerns in the production of a body of work for public display.

The unit allows you to demonstrate your acquired skills and abilities through individual research and practice. The production of a self-initiated research-based project will enhance your personal development as a designer.

You will explore the relationship between practice and theory in relation to communication design and your Final Major Project.

English Language Foundation

This unit focuses on your ability to understand and use the English language accurately when you read, speak, listen and write. We will concentrate on the English you need for undergraduate level study in your chosen subject area, covering grammar, subject area vocabulary and the four language skills of reading, writing, listening and speaking.

A key element of the unit is the grammar of the language, and particularly the verb tense system in English, because your ability to use the verb tense system accurately will be extremely important when you come to write essays and reports. This unit will focus in particular on the grammar of the language.

We will also focus on reading, listening and speaking skills in the context of your chosen subject area. Beginning with short texts, we will practise each skill and practise it again, so that gradually you will see, hear and feel that your command of the language is improving. 

A recurring focus of the unit will be your acquisition of 'learner autonomy'. This means your ability to acquire the language yourself, without needing a teacher's help. This is important because from next year you will not have an English teacher to help you. So we will consider and practise strategies to help you gain confidence in your own ability to increase your knowledge of and ability to use the language, including for instance guessing meaning of difficult words, deciding which words are important in a text, recognising differences between formal and informal language, and other strategies, so that as the first semester continues, you begin to feel more confident in your use and experience with the English Language.

Academic Skills Foundation

When you begin your undergraduate level studies, you will be expected to have knowledge of and ability to use a large range of 'study skills'. You will also be expected to have some knowledge of the subject area you will  be studying. This unit deals with both of these aspects of your preparation for undergraduate level study. 

All of the academic skills are practised in English, so you will use your developing acquisition of the language from the partner unit 'English Language Foundation' to practise and gain mastery of these skills. You will also use your language and study skills as you learn the foundation of your subject area, putting the skills into practice as you learn.

Developing English Language Skills

This unit builds on the progress you made during its partner semester 1 unit 'English Language Foundation' and increasing your level from that which you had achieved by the end of semester 1. 

We will recycle the tense system in English and other elements of the grammar system, but you will  now learn how to use other aspects of the grammar, including the passive voice, as well as linking words and phrases and devices which enable you to write longer sentences but retain grammatical accuracy. 

You will notice that we gradually introduce more specialist language that you need in preparation for your degree and we will expect you to use and develop the skills that you gained in the previous units so that you are able to work more independently.

Academic Skills Development

This unit builds on the skills learnt and practised in its partner semester 1 unit 'Foundation Academic Skills'. We will add more skills to the list, including summarizing and synthesising, argumentation, critical thinking and referencing and citation skills, as well as several others and practise and test them in the same way as with the semester 1 unit.

We will also investigate the research skill and you will learn how to prepare a research proposal and conduct a literature review, and how to plan a research project, learning about the research tools available and how they can be used to conduct research in your chosen field. 

You will continue to broaden your knowledge of key current issues and theory in your chosen subject area, and apply the critical thinking and argumentation skills you acquire in this unit to argue for and against propositions you have studied in the form of in both essays and presentations and in seminar situations, ensuring that you are ready to step up to your chosen undergraduate course with a base level of subject area knowledge from which to continue your academic development as you progress to level 4 study.

Professional Practice Year (Art And Design)

The aim of this unit is to provide the opportunity to undertake career-related experience which will allow you to understand and undertake responsibilities in the workplace at an appropriate level and use the opportunity to assess your readiness to undertake a career in your chosen field.