MDes
Graphic Design

• The School of Creative Arts at Wrexham Glyndŵr University was named as the best place in Wales to study Art in the 2017 Guardian University League Table.
• Experience a wide variety of learning opportunities throughout your study.
• Opportunities to visit design exhibitions and museums, attend conferences such as Offset in Dublin and visit design companies throughout the UK.
• Opportunity to enter your work for national and international design competitions, like the D&AD, YCN, The Roses and ISTD.
• State of the art facilities in our new Centre for the Creative Industries
• Small, friendly community of students and lecturers at our own campus in Regent Street.
• Teaching staff who are knowledgeable practitioners and research-active in the Creative Industries.

Year 1 (Level 4)

Your creative practice modules introduce you to your subject area of design that starts with a broad base with an emphasis on creating ideas and solving design problems using a variety of design and media production processes in a multidisciplinary environment of learning and teaching. The shared learning environment enables you to learn from working alongside each other, especially during induction and early modules such as ‘Introductory Subject Studies’. These aim to provide a firm foundation of experience on which to build. The team assignments are particularly successful in helping you make friends and open your mind to the philosophy of the Design programmes.

Work will be viewed periodically during modules and critically analysed through group discussion. Emphasis will be placed on your individual learning and you will receive a broad range of assignments within your subject area. These will analyse and explore the language of art and design, principles and processes, forms of communication and media techniques in staged progression through the first year.

Modules

• Contextual Studies 1
• Creative Futures 1
• Introductory Subject Studies
• Principles and Processes
• Ideas and Concepts
• Media and Techniques

Year 2 (Level 5)

You will find your modules will enable you to consolidate and extend your learning with more advanced techniques and processes that challenge you to experiment with a variety of media and methods of communication. Within the practical modules you will extend your art and design practice, thinking more about art and design in the community, for society and exhibition. There is the opportunity to produce sustained work over longer periods of time, raising quality and standards.

There is increased flexibility, enabling you the freedom to develop expressive aspects and abilities through choice of assignments in accordance with the philosophy of the programmes, developing your own critical research and intellectual skills. You are expected to take more responsibility for your own learning, action planning, evaluating your development through your ideas and concepts, reflective journals, and personal development planning.

Modules

• Contextual Studies 2
• Creative Futures 2
• Extended Practice
• Practice in Context
• Specialist Study

Year 3 (Level 6)

Here you will find that the creative practice modules will enable you to work on more complex and lengthier assignments that require an extended and sustained period of study. This involves critical, analytical negotiated studies through which you can determine your own career path and have the opportunity to negotiate a year plan that places you with more responsibility over what projects you undertake. In shared sessions, you will pitch your ideas to tutors and peer group and establish a learning contract that specifies your intended aims and learning outcomes. Presenting your work in this way will help you gain confidence in communicating your ideas. You will then manage your time and work to timescales in achieving a body of work that fulfils your objectives. This is closely monitored through regular critiques, seminars and tutorials.

Very often the negotiated study modules may take the form of commissioned, outside client or competition based work that adds relevance from an industrial and professional standpoint. The work will form a showcase that may culminate in an exhibition, but ultimately becomes your portfolio and passport to employment.

Modules

• Contextual Studies 3
• Creative Futures 3
• Negotiated Study 1
• Negotiated Study 2

Year 4 (Level 7)

The modules on the Integrated Masters' will enable you to acquire deeper practice-based skills, while furthering your vocational experience of working on professional pieces of work, exhibition projects and commissions. The programme challenges you in the way you think about your practice and how you may embrace new opportunities, collaborate with others, take risks, solve problems and adapt to different and innovative ways of working professionally in the creative industries arena.

Modules

Locating Practice
Practice and Application
Advanced Professional Practice

The information listed in this section is an overview of the academic content of the programme that will take the form of either core or option modules. Modules are designated as core or option in accordance with professional body requirements and internal academic framework review, so may be subject to change.

MDes Graphic Design

UCAS code:21C5

Entry to the programme normally requires the applicant to be in possession of 120 UCAS points at A-level or equivalent and should include Art & Design at Level 3.

If you have studied in another European country, please check the Entry Requirements for your qualification.

Continuous assessment. We will advise you on your level of attainment and direct you towards a strategy for further progression on the programme.

Teaching and learning

Wrexham Glyndŵr University is committed to supporting our students to maximise their academic potential.

We offer workshops and support sessions in areas such as academic writing, effective note-making and preparing for assignments. Students can book appointments with academic skills tutors dedicated to helping deal with the practicalities of university work. Our student support section has more information on the help available.

You will find your learning process a coherent one, which will emphasise the relationship between the various modules you will study and the assignments within them.

The overall philosophy of our programme is based on student-centred learning and will provide you with the opportunity to utilise and extend your experience in a supportive environment. At the outset of the programme you will be expected to take responsibility for your own learning and to be proactively engaged in a variety of teaching and learning processes. The programme is structured to enable you to work in an interdisciplinary manner, to be flexible and enable you to develop individually. Your experience will also be supported by a personal tutor/tutorial system.

Independent learning is an important aspect of all modules, as it enables students to develop both their subject specific and key skills. Independent learning is promoted through the feedback given to students, which takes several forms including small group and one-to-one discussions.

The Careers & Zone at Wrexham Glyndŵr University is there to help you make decisions and plan the next steps towards a bright future. From finding work or further study to working out your interests, skills and aspirations, they can provide you with the expert information, advice and guidance you need.

There are a wide range of opportunities in the design industry. Graphic design and multimedia design graduates are well prepared to pursue careers as designers, art directors, studio managers, multimedia developers, concept artists, interactive developers, web designers, mobile communication designers, technicians, typographic designers.

You do not have to pay your tuition fees upfront.

Wrexham Glyndŵr University’s tuition fees for 2019/20 for a full-time undergraduate degree course are £9000.

The fees you pay and the support available will depend on a number of different factors. Full information can be found on our fees & finance pages. You will also find information about what your fees include in the FAQs section of those pages. 

You can see the full programme specification here.