
BA (Hons) Graphic Design
DURATION
3 up to 4 Years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
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EARLIEST START DATE
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TUITION FEES
GBP 13,450 *
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* international students full time / UK students full time £9250 / EU students full time £13450
Scholarships
Explore scholarship opportunities to help fund your studies
Introduction
"Due to the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic, examinations may be replaced by an alternative form of assessment during the academic year 2021/2022. Please refer to the Programme Specification on these pages for further details."
Why choose this course?
Creativity, craft, and community. If you’re looking for a career where you’ll never stop exploring, experimenting, and creating a positive impact on the world around you, graphic design could be the one for you.
Our course is your chance to dive into a world of contemporary design, try incredible techniques, and make lifelong friendships with like-minded creatives. It’s a career launchpad like no other – and it’s taken our graduates to some pretty impressive places. If you love expressing yourself visually, testing out new processes, making work that makes people go ‘wow’, and learning from the best – this course could be right up your street.
What are the facilities like?
Amazing. Learn in our vibrant, dedicated studio spaces and Mac labs. Do your research in our 24/7 library. Craft something unique in our screen-printing, bookbinding, and hackspaces. And try your hand at new techniques in our 3D design and laser-cutting workshops.
What's the course about?
You’ll spend your first year immersed in our studio, getting a solid grounding in print and digital projects, working alongside our Illustration students. You’ll be constantly challenged, supported, and encouraged as you learn technical skills, experiment, take risks and push new boundaries. If you’re also considering our Illustration degree, you can explore both and easily swap between the two in the first three months.
You’ll begin by learning the understated power of typography, logo design, brand identity, and layout – fundamentals that will underpin your craft, whatever direction you take. With them under your belt, at the end of the year, you’ll have the option of continuing on a pure Graphic Design pathway or switching to our Graphic Design: Advertising and Branding degree.
Your second year is a dynamic mixture of personal experimentation, balanced with a more professional focus. Regular sessions encourage you to develop your own visual style; whilst workshops teach more advanced software skills as well as a variety of printing techniques, collaborations with the other pathways, and an international study trip. The year is also about working on live briefs with some of the world’s highest-profile design agencies and developing your portfolio and building a CV. There’s the chance to explore everything today’s tech has to offer, crafting your website, building your social media profile, and creating a unique narrative that shows top design employers what an amazing designer you are. Throughout the course, we’ll help you to investigate, understand and critique the history of the subject, the theories behind what’s happening in contemporary design as well as looking into future trends.
Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too.
By the time you start your final year, you’ll have a solid understanding of design and the specialisms that fire your imagination. You’ll pick from a huge range of creative projects, workshops, and live briefs as well as developing your own self-directed projects — building a completely personal, standout portfolio. We’ll encourage original thinking, but we’ll also give you tons of support, inspiration, and encouragement.
And we won’t be the only ones. Throughout your course, we’ll invite amazing designers to lead workshops, set projects, and become your mentors. Our proximity to London means it’s easy for us to invite people doing the most innovative and exciting work with us.
It’s a powerful mix of freedom, inspiration, and support that prepares you for an incredible career. In fact, in recent years it’s earned our student's award wins in all the most coveted competitions including D&AD yellow pencils, Creative Conscience Gold medals, and I.S.T.D. awards. So, join our community and turn your creativity into a career you love. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be next.
Your main campus is College Lane
This is where the creative arts, science, and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists, and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.
This course includes the options of:
- Work placement
- Study abroad
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Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Curriculum
What will I study?
Degree programmes are structured into levels, 4, 5, and 6. These correspond to your first, second, and third/final year of study. Below you can see what modules you’ll be studying in each.
Level 4
- Visual Communication II 45 Credits II Compulsory
- Visual Thinking: Histories, Theories and Context II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design Essentials Part 1 II 45 Credits II Compulsory
Level 5
- Contextualising Contemporary Practice II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Designs Essentials Part 2 II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design Studio Practice II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design Professional Development II 15 Credits II Compulsory
- Live Briefs: Graphic Design II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Professional Work Experience 15: Design II 15 Credits II Optional
- Professional Work Experience 30: Design II 30 Credits II Optional
Level 6
- Year Abroad II 0 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design Advanced Practice Pt 1 II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design Advanced Practice Pt 2 II 60 Credits II Compulsory
- Graphic Design and Illustration L6 Degree Essay II 30 Credits II Compulsory
- Sandwich Year (Creative Arts) II 0 Credits II Optional
Study abroad
An opportunity for an amazing experience, which will help make you stand out from the crowd. With more and more companies working internationally, the experience of living in another country can make a great impression on future employers.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a sandwich year abroad. The University has partnerships with over 150 universities around the world, including the USA, Canada, Asia, Africa, Australia, South America, and closer to home in Europe.
If you study abroad between your second and third year of study, you’ll pay no tuition fee to the partner university and no tuition fee to us either. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
Work placement
Work placements are actively encouraged, with a dedicated 'professional practice' module during Level 5 that prepares students for taking on internships and placements. Course tutors have numerous high-profile links with industry and we often place students within these prominent businesses, as well as drawing on others within London and our local region. Students can either conduct placements as part of a taught module, or during non-taught weeks, or by taking the Sandwich Year option.
Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.
This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought-after professional skills.
Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process. Our students are currently on, or have recently completed year-long placements with Urban Outfitters, The Body Shop, Disney, River Island, Ocado as well as many smaller design studios. The University also offers a ‘self-employed’ placement year which helps students set up their own practice.
If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it.
What if I need support?
We’re right here. This course is all about creativity and community, so your tutors will be right beside you in the studio, rolling their sleeves up and getting stuck in. Need them outside study times? No problem. Pop in for advice, answers or just a friendly chat.
You’ll be part of a small teaching group, so you’ll also build supportive relationships with other students. Get together for our pub quiz, events, and exhibitions, or stick around for after-school club on Thursdays and do your thing alongside our whole graphic design and illustration family.
We’ve also got a dedicated student experience team, here to make sure you’re happy at Herts. So, if you ever feel you’re struggling, drop in and say hello. They’ll help you find all the advice, care, and reassurance you need.
For help with study skills, including referencing, essay writing, and presentations, you’ll have access to our academic support services. You can attend workshops, 1-to-1 sessions, and online tutorials. Both our LRCs (Learning Resources Centres) run drop-in study skills sessions. And the best thing is, it’s all free.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
What's next for my career?
Our graphic design courses send you out into the world with a cracking portfolio and a crate-load of practical industry skills. It’s no wonder our graduates have a great track record for landing sought-after graphic design jobs in some of the UK’s most high-profile agencies including Superunion, Moving Brands, and Taxi Studio.
They’re snapped up as advertising creatives, branding specialists, motion designers, editorial creatives, graphic designers, and art directors. Some even set up their own businesses, come back to us later as design teachers, or become studio managers.
Recent graduates are working at some of the most highly regarded design businesses in the UK and internationally. The course can lead to a wide range of career opportunities in design and illustration; particularly in the fields of branding, advertising, interaction, motion graphics, editorial design, and art direction. Our graduates have also gone on to set up their own businesses or pursued careers as studio managers, teachers, photographers, and printmakers.