Graphic Communication Design University of the Arts London (UAL)

Overview

The Graphic Communication Design programme from University of the Arts London (UAL) explores how the production of knowledge is intertwined with its form, context, and circulation. The course takes an expanded approach to the idea of research, combining studio and writing practice to engage critically with graphic design as both a creative practice and a subject of study. 

Through iterative and open-ended experimentation with visual media and tools of communication, students develop work that investigates existing knowledge, activates positions, and projects new forms of knowledge—within and beyond the discipline.

Why choose this course at Central Saint Martins

• Open practice: This course provides a structured and open framework for the development of a critical practice in an expanding field of graphic communication design. The community of designers works across established specialisms such as typography, book design, and illustration, as well as emerging digital and social practices.

• Enquiry through experimentation: You will engage with graphic communication design and writing practice as forms of research. Through rigorous experimentation with visual media and tools of communication we ask questions, interrogate existing knowledge, and propose new forms of knowledge.

• Contextualized practice: We position graphic design as a relational practice that not only reflects but actively reconfigures its cultural, social, and environmental contexts.

• Critical exchange: This course gathers together a highly international student and staff community, and the wide variety of their individual experiences provides a foundation for critical examination of historical and contemporary contexts for practice.

Careers

Graduates have gone on to launch their own studios and publishing companies, work for large-scale institutions and corporations around the world, freelance in their chosen areas, or develop their own new models for design practice. An increasing number of the graduates are following the MA with PhD study and choosing to pursue a design research career.