BA (Hons) Graphic Design

Our BA (Hons) Graphic Design graduates go on to play an active role in the creative industries, from branding consultancies to digital design, publishers to packaging. Many of our graduates have established their own companies.

Experimentation and discovery are important values on this course. There's no ‘right answer’ and you'll be supported to find your own path as you learn more skills. In addition to developing creative design strategies, we encourage you to bring your own experiences and interests to your work. We value conceptual approaches that attract attention, and then evoke an idea or emotion that is relevant and on target.

As a graphic designer, you’ll have to make decisions in complex and unpredictable situations. You’ll have to react quickly to new information, evolving briefs and advances in technology. On this course, you’ll learn to innovate under pressure and handle issues such as user-centred design, sustainability, emerging technology, service design, information design and interactive design. You’ll engage with leading design companies who set briefs, give talks, and help us to develop the curriculum. You’ll discover your own approach to visual problem-solving and graduate with the technical, critical, and conceptual skills that are highly prized by the industry.

Our teaching staff are exceptional. We’ve recently been awarded Gold by the TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) which assess quality of teaching.

They’re inspiring teachers, researchers, industry practitioners and technicians who are all here to support you with your studies and help you to achieve outstanding outcomes.

All undergraduate courses at AUB offer an optional placement year, to be taken between your second and third years of study.

If you’re unsure about this optional placement, you don’t need to decide now. Once you’re here and studying with us, the course team will discuss the placement options with you, so when the time comes, you can make a decision that’s right for you.

If you’re required to have a Student Visa to study in the UK, it won’t be possible to undertake the one-year placement option; there’ll be other opportunities for you to engage with industry during your study at AUB.

In your first year, you’ll be exposed to the full breadth of graphic design skills and solutions.

We’ll introduce you to a range of techniques to explore through the course. You’ll learn the importance of staying flexible to communicate across a broad range of media.

You’ll explore screen, print, interactive, web, typographic and theoretically based issues. Your practical work will depend on writing skills too because graphic design often involves images working with text.

Your first year provides you with the opportunities to develop cognitive, creative and technical skills through integrated theoretical and practical engagement. Units in the first level of the course provide an introduction to fundamental skills, principles, processes and knowledge.

All units in your first year are designed to provide you with experience in the studio and IT areas and to promote confidence in using technical processes, methods and materials necessary to the study of graphic design.

Study at this level provides a broader contextual understanding of the subject. Theory and practice are seamlessly integrated into all units. Skills in research, critical analysis and evaluation, communication of interrelated practices and technologies, are delivered to enhance the student’s creative potential.

During Level 5, you're required to relate creative aims to critical and contextual frameworks.

Learning agreements drive the self-initiated project in our ‘Innovate: Consolidate’ unit. This allows us to emphasise the progressive change in teaching methods that allows you to develop more confident and reflective approaches to your learning and demonstrate your increased self-directed learning.

Theoretical understanding at Level 5 builds on work undertaken at Level 4 to extend student knowledge and understanding of the wider contexts and issues of the visual arts, within appropriate theoretical frameworks.

In the final term, contemporary practice and contextual awareness and research of graphic design is broadened and deepened by the ‘Defining and Refining Themes and Issues’ unit.

Level 6 encourages you to confirm your particular creative aspirations and to extend the scope and depth of their enquiry.

All subsequent units require you to define your study through Learning Agreements, which you’ll negotiate with the teaching team. These provide a focus to enable you to demonstrate the integration of your learning on the course.

The Major Project unit provides an opportunity for you to demonstrate the maturity of your creativity, intellectual enquiry and expressive abilities. Your final major projects will focus on your identity as an individual designer. You’ll be encouraged to view your project as a springboard into a career and use it to open doors into industry.

Likewise, the ‘Investigative Study’ unit affords opportunities to pursue a programme of advanced independent research, consider links with the Major Project, or demonstrate that the level of skills in research; analysis, criticism and communication are appropriate for entry in employment or postgraduate study.

The success of the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course is represented by the sheer number of awards that our students win, including D&AD New Blood Awards, Creative Conscious Awards and Shine Awards.

• Royal Society of Arts Student Design Awards (2023) (Planet Generation), winner – Josie Field
• ISTD Accreditation Award – Daniel Bryant
• 3 Sided Cube Design for Good Award (2023), winner – Jessie Denyer
• JDO RAW (2023), winner – Chiara Causer
• Wadworth Brewery Competition, winner – Gemma Cook
• Coley Porter Bell, Shine Award (2019/2020), winner
• RSA Student Design Awards, one winner and eight finalists
• Three Creative Conscience winners, Gold/Silver/Bronze
• JDO Mash-up Award, three finalists
• Adobe Awards finalists 2019/2020
• Dragon Rouge, Bronze

Careers include:

• Graphic Designer
• Brand Strategist
• Brand Consultant
• Motion Graphic Designer
• UX/UI Designer
• Packaging Designer
• Art Director
• Social Media Strategist
• Experience Designer

Some BA (Hons) Graphic Design graduates choose to take postgraduate courses before embarking on their career.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design has close links with industry, and graduates are actively recruited by leading national and international design companies, including:

Forpeople | Coley | Porter Bell | Moving Brands | NB Studios | Bond and Coyne | Pentagram | Sky | Walker Agency | Tide | Ustwo | Nice & Serious | Bright Blue Day | Multi-adaptor | Dyson | Ogilvy | Bow&Arrow | 20 Ten Creative

You can find out more about our alumni by browsing their profiles below.

As part of BA (Hons) Graphic Design, you'll gain insight into the industry by visiting a range of design studios. You may also get the opportunity to take part in cultural course trips, previous trips have included:

• Berlin
• London
• Barcelona
• Madrid
• Venice

These trips are optional, and some may incur additional costs.

BA (Hons) Graphic Design has welcomed a wide range of inspiring speakers, to provoke discussion, deliver practice advice and workshops.

• Pali Palavathanan, TEMPLO
• Rob Nicoll, Co-Founder and CMO Chip[s] Board ltd
• Dr Cathy Gale, ‘X’ PhD research
• Rosie Isbell, Senior UX designer
• Rachel Andrews, Web developer, co-founder of Perch CMS and Notist
• Régine Debatty, Writer, curator, critic, We make money not art
• Alex Kosmidis, Joe Egan, Forpeople
• Tammy Johal, designer, Tide
• Izzi Hays, Creative Strategist Multi-adaptor
• Ruth Andrade, Lush
• Rebecca Ford, Head of Design and Innovation, The RSA
• Sevra Davies, British Council
• Laura Yarrow, Senior UX designer, Experience UX
• Ted Hunt, independent, discursive, critical designer