MA Graphic Design Welcome Guide

Preparing for your course

We're delighted that you've chosen to join our creative community at Arts University Bournemouth. We can't wait to see what you'll create.

Welcome to the MA Graphic Design course

This welcome pack is designed to give you an idea of what to expect during the first weeks of your course. Please take the time to read it carefully and take particular note of the pre-course preparation. The team and I hope that you'll enjoy a happy and productive time with us and look forward to meeting you.

A message from your Course Leader

Congratulations on achieving a place on the MA Graphic Design course! I would like to welcome you as a Postgraduate student studying here at Arts University Bournemouth.

I hope that you are excited, as I am, by the prospect of the challenges that this period of advanced study will bring, and that you will immerse yourself in the activities that we have planned. The nature of the course offers significant opportunities for you to think beyond your chosen discipline and it is this richness and sharing of ideas, along with a preparedness to take creative risks, that renders, in our experience, meaningful, imaginative and intellectually rewarding outcomes.

In your first term we will be reflecting on what it is to communicate and how we can design communication, exploring ways of collecting data and of using them to arrive at insightful and impactful outcomes.

Looking forward to working with you.

– Phil Jones, Course Leader

Before you join us

There is no pre-course project but check out the recommended reading below that will introduce some of the themes, methods, and theories that we promote on the course.

Recommended Reading: The Library here at AUB is extremely well resourced and includes all key texts that you will need. The list below indicates the key texts that will be useful throughout your studies, all of these are available from the Library at AUB. You might want to borrow a copy from your local library to look at before you arrive.

Crouch, C., and Pearce, J. (2012). Doing Research in Design. New York: Berg.
GBH (2017). Charm, Belligerence and Perversity: The Incomplete Works of GBH. London: Black Dog Publishing.
Grant, J., and Vodeb, O. (2023). What is Post-branding? How to Counter Fundamentalist Marketplace Semiotics. Eindhoven: Set Margins'
Hara, K. (2008). Designing Design, 2nd ed., Baden: Lärs Muller Publishers.
Martin, B., and Hanington, B. (2012). Universal Methods of Design: 100 Ways to Research Complex Problems, Develop Innovative Ideas, and Design Effective Solutions. Beverly: Rockport Publishers.