Design (Visual Communication)

Working alongside other postgraduate students from Textiles, Illustration, Graphics and Fine Art, you’ll develop your own projects while undertaking practice-led research, theory and professional practice modules.

Specialist tutors and technicians will guide your progress, supporting you to create your own approach and make your visual communication outcomes more successful.

You'll use subject-specific studios and workshops and have access to specialist software and computers. Our excellent art and design library provides access to books, ebooks, magazines and periodicals and is supported by a dedicated team.

Your year-long Design Master’s culminates in a public exhibition. Our aim is for you to graduate with a broad, informed outlook, a genuine confidence in your abilities and the professional skills necessary to succeed in your chosen specialism.

This Design Master’s runs over one year and is divided into three trimesters.

Trimester one
We encourage playfulness and risk-taking, and ask you to respond to a range of instructions in ways that will allow you to interrogate how you work – without threatening your approach. Right from the start, you'll begin to gather primary and secondary research that will feed into your assessments. We introduce a range of key issues in design and communication practice and allow you to explore how your specialist approach relates to the wider field. You’ll also begin to develop your professional practice skills such as marketing, social media, IT, collaborative working and exhibition installation.

Trimester two
Maintaining an experimental approach, you'll begin to narrow your focus. Academic staff will help you evaluate your development and refine your work to support the project outcome. You’ll be encouraged to pay greater attention to the way in which your project functions and engages its audience. Technical staff will support you to bring your project to a level appropriate for the assessment submission.

Trimester three
A self-directed, double practice module leads to your final Degree Show. You’ll establish a line of enquiry, working to a proposal of your devising, which positions your work within your specialist discipline. You’ll work in the studio with increasing independence to produce a body of work that demonstrates your now advanced knowledge and understanding of your professional practice.

This course includes or offers the following modules. Please check the programme document for more information on which modules are core, required or optional.

• Research Methods
• Theory and Professional Context
• Practice 1 (Design)
• Research Practice
• Theory and Professional Practices
• Practice 2 (Design)
• Master's Project

Your progress is evaluated by formative assessment (throughout the duration of the course) and summative assessment (at the end of each trimester), through a mixture of exhibitions, verbal/visual presentations, research folders/blogs and written assignments.

You’ll learn through lectures, talks, taught sessions, individual and group tutorials, and studio critiques and seminars.

Visiting lecturers, and seminars with external professionals and internationally renowned designers and artists, will help you determine where your current practice sits within the industry.

Our collaborative structure also means that you’ll learn from each other – for instance, Visual Communication or Illustration students might engage in debates with Fine Art students.

Technical Demonstrators, who manage our workshop facilities, provide teaching and support across a wide range of subject specialisms. Your learning is also supported by specialist librarians.

To find out more about how we teach and how you'll learn, please read our Learning and Teaching Delivery Statement.

When permitted, Bath School of Design offers fieldwork opportunities throughout the academic year.

Graduates from this department have become designers, illustrators, photographers and photo editors for design agencies, architectural and engineering practices, the MOD and other specialist areas. Many work in conjunction with fine artists.

The research elements of the course also lay the foundations for a teaching career or further study.

You’ll benefit from access to comprehensive digital workshops and specialist art and design facilities, including:

• Our student service point at Locksbrook where you can purchase subsidised art and design materials, hire out equipment for free and collect Library resources
• Access to our well-stocked Library at Newton Park
• Specialist technical workshops across all of art and design
• Access to studio space where you can work on projects and refine your practice