Overview

The future graphic designer is curious, empathetic, responsible, knowledgeable and technically adaptable. Coventry University’s Graphic Design BA (Hons) course challenges and guides you to become just that.

The course pushes you to become an independent designer with a conscience and boundless imagination. In doing so, you will be guided to explore your own passions, as well as adapt to changing briefs and diverse audiences. This is aligned with four key pillars that define the course’s ethos: experimentation, critical thinking, community and vocation. As such, the course favours creative freedom and exploration of mediums, techniques and technologies to visualise research-informed concepts and innovative design strategies within a supportive network of staff, students, alumni, clients and industry guests. On this course, you are not only guided towards the development of a strong portfolio of work, but also encouraged to proactively define and pursue own interests in alignment with your long-term goals.

Ranked among the 10 best universities in the country for ‘Design and Crafts’ in the Guardian University Guide 2019, our graphic design students are regular winners of reputable design competitions such as D&AD, YCN and the Penguin Student Design Awards. Our graduates have gone on to create award winning advertising campaigns for Silver Spoon and moving imagine work for The Mill, user interfaces for IBM, book covers for the The Hunger Games, campaign collateral for Lush, and even launch their own jewelry company as worn by Lily Allen, Slothai and Mini Swoosh.

Course information

On this course, we teach within a framework that takes into account the multi-faceted roles a graphic designer might perform. Be it a storyteller, a problem solver or a persuasive strategist, the course allows you to explore these roles through a wide variety of projects along four main threads of inquiry: Narrative & Time, Systems & Information, Strategy & Direction and Personal Development Planning.

Cumulatively, these four branches of learning and their respective modules, make up the full course curriculum and celebrate the course’s key pillars: experimentation, community, vocation and critical thinking. Therefore, we’ll help you discover your individual style as you engage in creative play and begin defining your personal design identity; you’ll explore technologies and materials and get the chance to use a variety of digital and traditional making workshops to visualise your ideas; you’ll engage with industry through live client-led projects and through simulated projects, including competition briefs; and you will underpin your entire design journey in critical investigation of theories and research. In all modules, you are encouraged to explore lateral thinking, develop the capacity to advocate for your work and take risks in a safe environment.