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MA

Graphic Communication

Our MA Graphic Communication is an ideal opportunity to develop your skills and interests by exploring the creative issues and technical aspects of graphic design today.

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Key Course Details

  • Start Date

    September

  • Location

    Cardiff

  • Campus Code

    B

Fees

  • Home students

    £10,800*

  • International students

    £16,900*

  • Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits.

The practical element of this graphic design masters is strengthened by an enhanced critical understanding of contemporary professional design debates, issues, and trends, plus a greater understanding of research and how to apply them effectively.

DESIGNED FOR

The course provides you with an opportunity to grow your existing design skills to a highly accomplished level and interests by exploring the creative issues and technical aspects of graphic design today. For designers working in industry, it offers a platform for career development by revising, developing, and updating your skills.

Career Paths

  • Graphic Designer
  • Campaign and Marketing
  • Motion Graphics Designer
  • Brand Strategist
  • Education

Skills taught

  • Advances understanding of working practices
  • Awareness of sustainability and diversity
  • Analyse, evaluate, organise and manage creative projects
  • Develop digital skills
  • Ability to encourage critical engagement with approaches to creative practice
  • Advanced understanding of business practice

Course Highlights

Broad-based Course but Specialised Course

The MA Graphic Communication course at the University of South Wales offers you the opportunity to build your knowledge and skillset to an advanced level to make you highly competitive for a variety of graphic design related jobs in the marketplace. You will be able to choose whether you would like to be a general graphic design, or someone specialised in a particular area of graphic communication

Develop an Outstanding Portfolio

On completion of this course, you will have a portfolio that demonstrates the excellent skills that you have learned on the course.

Solve Complex Problems

Graphic designers often must solve complex problems. During the course, you will be presented with a variety of design challenges and how to overcome them. Graphic Communication is an evolving discourse; graphic designers are sometimes described as polymaths because they are required to solve problems outside of their immediate area. This course will teach you how to provide creative solutions to

Learn How to Be an Entrepreneur

The course will introduce you to how the Creative Industries function and provide you with the necessary skills to become an entrepreneur.

Module Overview

This degree is based at USW’s purpose-built campus, in the creative centre of Cardiff. Our MA Graphic Communication is an ideal opportunity to develop your skills and interests by exploring the creative issues and technical aspects of graphic design today. For designers working in industry, it offers a platform for career development by revising, developing, and updating your skills.

Graphic Communication Principles 
In this module, you will gain an advanced understanding of the methodologies, principles, skills and working practices involved in designing for branding/identity in graphic communication. 

Professional Design Practice 
Develops an advanced understanding of the skills and theories of business practice in a
range of design business environments.  Scrutiny is given to the social, economic, and
political factors effecting decisions made within the design industry. The entrepreneurial
aspects of contemporary Design Practice involved in starting up and running a small design consultancy or freelance design practice are. 

Research and Practice in the Creative Industries 
To encourage a critical engagement with approaches to creative practice, and with ideas, debates, and issues in the creative and cultural industries.

Graphic Communication Applications
Engenders an innovative and creative approach to the design process for graphic
communication artefacts. It will develop your understanding and skills in producing graphic communication design work for production.

Graphic Design Projects 
The module seeks to provide opportunity for collaborative work between cohorts, awards, and organisations in differing locations working on common projects. You will engage critically with current practice, research, and advanced scholarship in relation to the creation of a coherent body of creative work. Develop innovative original visual solutions negotiating unpredictable situations, complex problems within the context of production.

Final Major Projects
In this module, you will be given the opportunity to demonstrate the application of highly
advanced level graphic communication design skills to a challenging and complex problem with autonomy. You will also employ the Graphic Communication Design process of research, development, visualisation, production, presentation, and evaluation in the completion of a complex major design task.

ENTRY REQUIREMENTS

A good Honours degree in a relevant discipline, or an appropriate professional qualification, or HND/HNC and appropriate experience. UK applicants will be interviewed with their portfolio. Part-time students are usually required to be practising professionals. Relevant subjects include, but are not limited to, Art/Fine Art, Design, Graphics, Illustration, Art History, 3D Design, Fashion Design/Textiles, Interior Design, Advertising, Design Marketing, Animation, Game Art, Web Design, Fashion Promotion, or any subject that uses creative conceptual thought as part of its main process.

Equivalent accredited international qualifications are acceptable. International students need to supply a CD or DVD of their work, or a link to their personal website, to evidence their ability. Commitment to study will be considered. Where possible, video-conferencing, Skype or other communication will be used to contact you.

International applications welcomed:

We welcome international applications with equivalent qualifications of our entry requirements. For more details related to your country of residence, please view our dedicated country pages.

English language requirements

International applicants will need to have achieved an overall of IELTS 6.0 with a minimum of 5.5 in each component/TOEFL 72 overall and a minimum of 18 in reading, 17 in listening, 20 in speaking and 17 in writing or equivalent.

Equivalents can be located on our English Language pages.

If you have previously studied through the medium of English, IELTS might not be required, please visit our country specific page for further details. If your country is not featured, please contact us.

If you do not meet the English entry criteria, please visit our Pre-Sessional course pages.

Contextual offers

We may make you a lower offer based on a range of factors, including your background (where you live and the school or college that you attended, for example), your experiences and individual circumstances (as a care leaver, for example). This is referred to as a contextual offer, and we receive data from UCAS to support us in making these decisions.

USW prides itself on its student experience and we support our students to achieve their goals and become a successful graduate. This approach helps us to support students who have the potential to succeed and who may have faced barriers that make it more difficult to access university.

 

We're here to help

Whether you a have a question about your course, fees and funding, the application process or anything else, there are plenty of ways you can get in touch, and we'd love to talk to you. You can contact our friendly admissions team by phone, email or chat to us online.

 

Fees and Funding

UK Full-time Fee

£10,800

per year*
International Full-time Fee

£16,900

per year*

Further Information

Studying at university is one of the most significant investments you'll ever make. Whilst you’re studying, you’ll have two main financial obligations – tuition fees and living costs. There’s lots of financial help available from the University of South Wales and external funding sources, that may provide loans (which have to be paid back) and grants, scholarships and bursaries (that don't).

*Full-time fees are per year. Part-time fees are per 20 credits. Once enrolled, the fee is anticipated to remain at the same rate throughout the duration of your study on this course except as described below.

Please be aware that we may increase the maximum fee for home students on full-time undergraduate courses only where the Welsh Government increases the permitted level of inflation of fees. Fees for all students (including part-time, postgraduate and international students) may be amended in accordance with our applicable Fees and Debt Management Policy.  We will ensure that students are given clear, intelligible, unambiguous and timely information about our courses and costs in good time, ahead of the next academic year.

 

Fees and Funding Scholarships and Busaries Alumni Discount

Additional Costs

As a student of USW, you’ll have access to lots of free resources to support your study and learning, such as textbooks, publications, online journals, laptops, and plenty of remote-access resources. Whilst in most cases these resources are more than sufficient in supporting you with completing your course, additional costs, both obligatory and optional, may be required or requested for the likes of travel, memberships, experience days, stationery, printing, or equipment.

Media Loans

You can hire a range of equipment, for your assignments and practical work, for free from our Media Loans facility.

Media Loans

University Quality Assurance

At USW, we regularly review our courses in response to changing patterns of employment and skills demand to ensure we offer learning designed to reflect today’s student needs and tomorrow’s employer demands.

If during a review process course content is significantly changed, we’ll write to inform you and talk you through the changes for the coming year. But whatever the outcome, we aim to equip our students with the skillset and the mindset to succeed whatever tomorrow may bring. Your future, future-proofed.

Course Highlights

How you'll learn

Assessment on the MA takes variety of forms to enrich and structure your learning
experience, including practical projects, presentations, and written work.

Teaching staff

Dr Rachel Grainger (Course Leader/Senior Lecturer), 
Emma Marshman (Academic Subject Manager/Principal Lecturer), 
Ryan Preece Senior Lecturer (Senior Lecturer), 
Stephen Leadbetter (Lecturer).

Placements

.

Facilities

Cardiff Campus offers Green Screen Capture Studio, 3D Printing facilities, laser cutting
machines, photography studios and printers. Our studios are equipped with the latest Macs with Apple Silicon, specialist software (Adobe Creative Cloud, Cinema 4D and Figma), as well as Wacom Graphics Tablets. Specialist equipment can also be borrowed from our student equipment loans services.

Equipment

At our Cardiff Campus we have a vast range of equipment that you will be trained to use as part of your course. To help support your studies we have a Media Loans facility that allows you to hire the equipment, at no cost, for you to then use for your assignments and practical work.  We have both basic and high-end film and photography cameras, portable lighting and sound equipment as well as a range of professional studio recording microphones, instruments and associated equipment to use in our music studios or on location. The team of technical officers and instructors are also available to help you with any queries and technical issues.

Careers and Employability

Graduate careers

The following careers are open to graduates of USW’s MA Graphic Communication:

  • General graphic design,
  • Digital graphic design,
  • Branding design,
  • User-experience design,
  • User-interface design,
  • Motion graphic design

Campaign design,

Education.

Possible career paths

USW’s MA Graphic Communication graduates work as general graphic designers, digital
graphic designers, branding designers, user-experience designers, user-interface designers, motion graphic designers, campaign designers, freelancers, entrepreneurs, as well as quite capably continuing their education by undertaking a teacher training qualification, or a MPhil/PhD.

Careers support

You will have access to advice from the Careers and Employability Service throughout your studies and post-graduation. This includes one-to-one appointments from faculty-based Career Advisers, in person, over the phone or even on Skype and through email via the "Ask a Question" service. We also have extensive online resources for help with considering your career options and presenting yourself well to employers. Resources include psychometric tests, career assessments, a CV builder, interview simulator and application help. Our employer database has over 2,000 registered employers targeting USW students, you can receive weekly email alerts for jobs. Our Careers service has dedicated teams: A central work experience team to help you find relevant placements; an employability development team which includes an employability programme called Grad Edge; and an Enterprise team focused on new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

How to apply

There is an online application process for this course. Please choose the application form for your preferred start date and mode of study (i.e. full-time or part-time).

International admissions

Please see our international admissions advice for further information about how to apply as a prospective international student.

Studying at USW

Our courses are designed with industry leaders and provide the practical skills and experiences industry demands. Our flexible courses reflect the need for life-long learning. If you value education in practice, not just in theory, then USW is for you.

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