Overview
Develop an innovative approach to typographic communication on this practice-based MA. Collaborate with other students and professional designers to challenge preconceived ideas and further your professional practice.
Additional Descriptions
- Join a course that scored 100% for overall satisfaction in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey 2019
- Access all of Cambridge School of Art’s facilities, including letterpress, screenprinting, and 3D workshops, with full training provided.
- Take part in activities to further your career, including Type Thursday, Letter Exchange lectures, and other events at St Bride Foundation and The Artworkers’ Guild.
- Get advice and support from our expert practicing artists, as well as guest lecturers and other visiting professionals.
- Join a truly International course with students from all over the world, including language support and ARU’s international merit scholarship.
- Benefit from ARU’s student offers, with free access to Lynda training and discounts on Adobe Cloud.
Our MA Graphic Design and Typography is a student-centered, practice-led course that will allow you to experiment with diverse and innovative techniques, advancing your typographic practice to the postgraduate level.
Whether you are an established professional designer or a new graduate or have come to graphic design via a different professional route, you will receive the training you need to develop your understanding of the business and social contexts of graphic communication as well as your practice.
At the end of the course, you will use all the skills you have developed to research and complete a final visual project relating to your own specialisms.
Your studies will be supported by a team of expert, practicing professionals, including Course Leader Will Hill (author of The Complete Typographer), David Jury (author of Reinventing Print: Technology and Craft in Typography and About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography) and Nick Jeeves (a graphic designer who has worked for Saatchi & Saatchi, Hatfield House, and the UK Film Council, among others).
Our small class sizes will ensure you always feel supported on a personal level and allow you to forge close relationships with fellow students. You will also have the chance to work with students from other courses.
We use many online resources to complement your studies and keep you up to date with the field of typography, type design, and graphic communication. These include a Learning Management System, WordPress blogs, and a Facebook group, through which we share content and news from our international network of contacts.
Throughout the course, you will have opportunities to learn from external practitioners at events including guest lectures and employability workshops. Our past speakers have included typeface designer Jeremy Tankard, poster designer, and multimedia specialist Marian Oslislo and typographer Tomasz Bierkowski.
You will also attend Type Thursday and other industry events such as Letter Exchange lectures at The Artworkers’ Guild, where you can network with professionals and get your work seen.
Our Masters's course will equip you for professional employment or self-employment in graphic design and design consultancy, as well as related fields like brand development, art-editorial design, publishing, typography/typesetting, advertising, and media design.
It will also give you a basis for a teaching career, or to continue on to a research degree, such as our Ph.D. Graphic Design and Typography.
As well as attending industry events and employability workshops, you may also get the chance to work on a live brief set by a local company. Our past students have created work for Cambridge Junction, The David Parr House, and Marshall Aerospace.
As an ARU student, you can compete for funding to establish your own projects through The Big Pitch and the Andy Wilson bursary.
Your department and faculty
At Cambridge School of Art, we combine the traditions of our past with the possibilities afforded by the latest technologies.
Using our expertise and connections in Cambridge and beyond, we nurture creativity through experimentation and risk-taking to empower the makers and creators of the future.
Our academics excel at both practice and theory, making a real impact in their chosen fields, whether they are curating exhibitions, designing book covers, or photographing communities in Africa. They are also regularly published in catalogs, books, journals, and conference papers, their research classed as being of ‘international standing’, with some elements ‘world-leading, in the most recent Research Excellence Framework.
Specialist facilities
As a Cambridge School of Art student, you can receive access and training to all of our on-campus facilities - not just those for your own course. These include traditional letterpress and screenprinting workshops as well as digital facilities such as animation and design studios (using industry-standard Adobe design software on Macintosh technology), photographic studios, laser cutting, and large-format digital printing.

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