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Close up of colourful print involving repeat letters

Graphic Design MA

  • Intro
  • Course
    content
  • Careers
  • Entry
    criteria
  • Fees
  • Location
  • Stay in
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Intro

Our distinctive Graphic Design MA is an enriching and advanced programme for both graphic designers looking to push their practice in ambitious new directions and creatives wanting to move into the field.

You will be encouraged to explore social, political and environmental issues in your work and to consider the crucial role of design in relation to the most pressing debates in contemporary society.

At the heart of graphic design is communication and story-telling, and this programme is rooted in defining and challenging the boundaries of the practice.

We will support you in discovering fresh new ways of working and in expanding your creative ideas and research interests – you will be solving real-world design problems at a high level.

Key facts

Location Brighton: City campus

Full-time 1 year
Part-time 2 years

Join an online event

Apply online

Please review the entry requirements carefully and if you have any questions do get in touch with us.

Apply now for your place

View looking up at Grand Parade building
You will be learning at our Grand Parade building in central Brighton, working alongside students from across the visual communication postgraduate programmes, which encourages interdisciplinary collaboration and conversation.
Details of printing fonts
The course covers motion graphics, user experience design, editorial design, branding, typography, narrative systems, gamification and art direction.
Drawing colourful shapes in a notebook
Your learning will be a mix of practical workshops, lectures, guided and independent study, critical reflection and writing, presentations and study trips.
Graphic design publications on shelves
At the end of your MA you will exhibit your major project work in a show open to the public.

Art and design at Brighton is ranked 8th in the UK and 51st globally by the QS World University Rankings 2020.

This new MA takes the view that issues of sustainability, social change and our place as designers, consumers and citizens are at the heart of what it means to be a responsible and responsive graphic designer.

Gavin Ambrose, course leader

Course content

How this course is delivered

We've made some changes to the way our courses are taught to keep everyone safe, connected and involved in university life.

At the moment, students have a blend of on-campus and digitally enabled remote learning that provides lots of opportunities to interact and engage with lecturers and other students.

Find out what these changes mean for this course

Course structure

You will learn a combination of analogue and digital techniques which may include motion graphics, user experience design, editorial design, branding, typography, narrative systems, gamification and art direction.

The course will be delivered through practical workshops, guided and independent study, critical reflection and writing, lectures, presentations and study trips over three semesters.

Part-time students take the same key modules but over two years.

Some modules are specific to this Graphic Design MA, whilst others are shared with other postgraduate courses, enabling you to meet and work with peers outside of your immediate subject.

Graphic design student printing

Semester 1

Design Landscapes

This module encourages you to orientate your graphic design practice, enabling students who have entered from a variety of creative disciplines to focus on what they see their role as a graphic designer being. It considers your ambitions as a designer, using design principles as a starting point to compare, contrast and question.

This contemporary and international perspective will help to ensure the curriculum is decolonised and inclusive. This module is taught as a series of studio-based talks and short catalyst projects where you critically test a variety of practices and skills.

Project Development

The first part of the major project is both practical and research focused. Research module elements are shared with the Sequential Design/Illustration MA through talks, seminars and self-led research interest groups that feed into your practical work.

This is beneficial in getting you to engage in independent research and develop an understanding of a broad range of design research.

Studio practice will develop your ideas and research interests into a series of tests and development projects. This is taught through a series of workshops, group and one-to-one tutorials. 

You will have a formative tutorial halfway through the module.
You submit a portfolio of work and a proposal for resolution in the form of a pitch presentation to the group, with room for questions and debate.

This means you get both summative feedback from tutors and peers and formative feedback at the end of the module.

Semester 2 

Project Resolution

The second part of the major project continues to be both practical and research focused. Research modules are again shared with other courses through talks, seminars and self-led research interest groups that feed into your practical work.

Studio practice will build on the development of previous work. There will be a strong emphasis on research-led practice, run through a series of group and one-to-one tutorials and critiques.

This module culminates in the MA Show, an exhibition of your practical work, where you consider how best to present and articulate your design practice to an audience.

Professional Development

Throughout the course there are a series of professional practice events and talks, enabling you to further consider fields of design practice you may be interested in engaging with post education.

This module sees you consolidate your research and practical work and orientate yourself within a professional setting, considering how best to present your work with relevance to your independent design practice.

Research Presentation

You begin your Research Presentation by reflecting on your show, and through your research-led design practice, you will be asked to consider your research practice and how you can share this publicly.

Semester 3

Research Presentation (cont.)

This module  culminates in a symposium and publication of your interests. You'll work together with fellow students to design, curate, edit and identify a concept for the symposium.

The symposium will be an assessed event where you engage with and present your research either as a talk, workshop, lab or seminar session – using the process that feels best for your practice.

Professional Development (cont.)

This module is assessed as a portfolio and can be submitted as a website, digital PDF or showreel. It is assessed as an individual report articulating your practice, considering how it communicates with a specified professional audience.

Facilities

You will work in postgraduate studio spaces alongside fellow visual communication students, encouraging interdisciplinary collaboration and conversation between other courses and external partners.

Technical staff are on hand to assist you in the workshops and facilities available to you include:

  • one of the country's best-stocked art and design libraries
  • the internationally important Design Archives with a wealth of graphic design and illustration material
  • dedicated graphic design studio
  • letterpress printing workshop (dedicated technician)
  • book arts workshop (dedicated technician)
  • Techhub featuring laser cutting, plasma cutting, CNC 3-axis milling, CNC routing, 3D body scanning, portable 3D scanning and rapid prototyping
  • department print bureau.

Students using printing facilities

Meet the team

Our team of practitioners and specialists, as well as experienced technicians, will guide you in mastering your specialism within the field.

Louise Colbourne, course leader

As well as teaching, Louise is an independent arts project director with a particular interest in interdisciplinary film practices, immersive media, motion graphics and expanded cinema. She uses both analogue and digital methods for the production and presentation of installations and single screen works. 

She has produced and curated major international exhibitions and events for the Brighton Digital Festival, Latitude Festival, The Jerwood Gallery and the Brighton Cinecity Film festival amongst others. She has also put together events for many other exhibitions and festivals to include: Loop video art festival in Barcelona, Liverpool Biennale, Whitstable Biennale, ESPS in St Leonards-on-Sea, and the ICA in London.

Read Louise’s full profile.

Gavin Ambrose, programme leader

Gavin is a practicing graphic designer who works with clients on diverse and engaging social, cultural and environmental projects. His practice, Studio 245, works within graphic design, print and environmental design with the aims of culturally enriching our environment and field of vision and embracing new ways of learning. He teaches through activities focused around workshops and activity led sessions aimed at empowering learners.

This method is based, in part, on the teachings of Jean-Pol Martin, who pioneered the LdL method of teaching (Lernen durch Lehren or Learning by Teaching) where peers are encouraged to teach one another.

Since 2005 Gavin has authored and designed a series of books on design and design theory for Bloomsbury Press London and New York which have been translated into multiple languages.

Gavin is a registered PhD supervisor at the University of Brighton, and this presents an opportunity to advance higher level study and research.

Read Gavin’s full profile.

Other staff who teach on the course include Beth Salter and Gavin Fry.

The Layout Book by Ambrose Harris

Our latest news

Thinking about preparing your portfolio?

Thinking about preparing your portfolio?

Watch these two short films where art students talk you through how they put theirs together.

Follow Graphic Design and Illustration on Instagram

Follow Graphic Design and Illustration on Instagram

Run by our students, technicians and staff, this Instagram account shows you what it’s like to study visual communication at Brighton.

Lucia’s Tate designs win World Illustration Award

Lucia’s Tate designs win World Illustration Award

Illustration graduate Lucia Vinti has won the New Talent in the Design, Product & Packaging Category  at the prestigious World Illustration Awards 2020.

Graphic Design MA course leader launches The Grid virtual installation

Graphic Design MA course leader launches The Grid virtual installation

Louise Colbourne’s studio-LAB project sees her create accessible ‘maker spaces’ within virtual reality environments – and for this first installation Larry Achiampong and David Blandy showcase selections from their video works A Terrible Fiction and Finding Fanon 2.

Read more from our blog

Careers

Graphic design is a large and varied discipline. It spans the rich, analogue traditions of the printed word and image to sophisticated and ever-evolving digital technologies which are now integrated into all aspects of our professional and personal lives.

At Brighton, our Graphic Design MA has been created to enable you to develop the skills, confidence, agility and ambition to position yourself within this immense and fast-changing landscape.

We will help you to understand the wide-ranging career options open to you, many of which didn’t exist five years ago, and to make informed choices so you can succeed and thrive, whether as a freelancer, an in-house designer or through further PhD study and research.

Graphic design prints

Entry criteria

Entry requirements

The entry requirements listed here are our typical offer for this course if you wish to begin studying with us in 2021. They should be used as a general guide. 

Degree and experience
Honours degree or equivalent in a relevant area. Other candidates with relevant experience and demonstrable ability are also considered.

Interviews normally take place in person but temporarily from March 2020, all interviews will be replaced by an online portfolio submission. plus a 600-word proposal for a potential project. Applicants are requested to submit their proposal at the application stage (guidelines are available on request).

English language requirements
IELTS 6.5 overall with a minimum of 5.5 in each element. Find out more about the other English qualifications that we accept.

Interview advice
Interviews normally take place in person but temporarily from March 2020, we'll be asking to see an online portfolio instead.

International requirements and visas

International requirements by country
Country name
Albania
Algeria
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Botswana
Brazil
Bulgaria
Burma (Myanmar)
Cameroon
Canada
Chile
China
Colombia
Croatia
Cyprus
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
Egypt
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Guyana
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Iraq
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Jamaica
Japan
Jordan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Kosovo
Kuwait
Latvia
Lebanon
Liechtenstein
Libya
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Macedonia
Malaysia
Malawi
Malta
Mexico
Moldova
Montenegro
Morocco
Namibia
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Palestinian National Authority
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Qatar
Romania
Russian Federation
Saudi Arabia
Serbia
Sierra Leone
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sri Lanka
Syria
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Tanzania
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
United States
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Vietnam
Yemen
Zambia
Zimbabwe

We can help you meet our English language or academic entry requirements.

Visit our language centre

For English language preparation courses.

Visit our International College

For degree preparation courses.

Visas and immigration advice

Applying for a student visa

Check out our step-by-step guidance.

Project proposal 

You are required to write a 600-word project proposal to accompany your application form. The following headings should assist you:

  • title (or working title) and any subtitle of the project.
  • the form the project might take: book, comic/graphic novel, digital, film, interactive, etc
  • the editorial limits of the project (number of pages, running time etc)
  • who is the project designed for and what are its intended objectives?
  • a description of what the project will involve
  • how you would start work on the project
  • possible technical requirements
  • in what way do you feel the project is designed to be sequential?
  • any information you think is relevant.

This proposal represents a project that you would choose to do. It is useful as an example of your thinking. However, many students change their projects by agreement either after interview or on joining the course. In some cases, students may prefer to do more than one project on a theme. If this is the case, write a brief summary about why you would want to take this approach.

Humanities student

Portfolio and interview 

Due to COVID-19, we expect interviews to be online and the processes may change slightly – check back here for updates. If you've already applied, we will tell you about any changes.

Your portfolio, together with the project proposal, will enable us to assess your abilities to carry out your chosen project. It should demonstrate evidence of:

  • completed projects: it is essential that at least one of these projects should be accompanied by all its development work; you will also be required to explain the nature of the tasks or briefs in relation to these finished pieces
  • an ability to use maps, plans, diagrams and rough sketches to discuss large projects before you start them
  • scrapbooks, sketchbooks, notebooks that show your ability to visually research any subject
  • independence (projects and work other than those required by academic or client demands)
  • interests outside your particular subject or discipline.

You do not need to start the project you have proposed or have work in your portfolio that relates directly to it. We feel able to assess an applicant’s potential by looking at the work they choose to present at interview.

Find out more about how to create and submit your portfolio.

Creative media work

Fees

Course fees

UK (full-time)7,704 GBP

International (full-time) 15,300 GBP

Scholarships, bursaries and loans

We offer a range of scholarships for postgraduate students. Bursaries and loans may also be available to you.

Find out more about postgraduate fees and funding.

What's included

You may have to pay additional costs during your studies. The cost of optional activities is not included in your tuition fee and you will need to meet this cost in addition to your fees. A summary of the costs that you may be expected to pay, and what is included, whilst studying a course in the School of Art are listed here.

  • For most courses you will need to budget for the cost of specialist materials, equipment and printing and are likely to spend between £50–£300 per year.
  • Costs in your final year of study are very likely to be higher than in earlier years as you bring together your final body of work and portfolio, and you may need to budget between £200 and £1,000.
  • For some courses you may also need to budget up to £100 for specialist personal protective clothing which, with care, will last for the whole of your course and beyond.
  • For most courses you will have the opportunity to attend field trips and off-site visits, for example to galleries, exhibitions and studios both in the UK and overseas. These are optional and are not required to pass your course. The amount spent would be based on location and number of trips taken, and typically range between £100 and £700 across the duration of your course.
  • You will have access to computers and necessary software at City campus and at other locations across the university. However, many students choose to buy their own hardware – usually a laptop, software and accessories. The amount spent will depend on your individual choices but this expenditure is not essential to pass any of our courses.
  • Course books and a wide range of magazines and journals are available in the university libraries. You do not need to have your own copies, but if you wish to, you should budget up to £200 over your course to buy them.
  • For courses in which there is an optional placement year, you will need to budget for living costs (rent, food, travel etc) in that city/country, as if you were on site at the university.

You can chat with our enquiries team through the Stay in touch panel at the end of this page if you require further information. Or check our finance pages for advice about funding and scholarships, as well as more information about fees and advice on international and island fee-paying status.

Info

The fees listed here are for full-time courses beginning in the academic year 2021–22.

Further tuition fees are payable for each subsequent year of study and are subject to an annual increase of no more than 5% or RPI (whichever is the greater). The annual increase for UK students, who are subject to regulated fees, will increase no more than the statutory maximum fee.

You can find out more about our fees in the university's student contract and tuition fee policy (pdf).

The tuition fee you have to pay depends on a number of factors including the kind of course you take, and whether you study full-time or part-time. If you are studying part-time you will normally be charged on a pro rata basis depending on the number of modules you take.

Location

Local area

About Brighton

The University of Brighton is at the heart of our city’s reputation as a welcoming, forward-thinking place which leads the way when it comes to the arts, music, sustainability and creative technology. Brighton is home to a thriving creative community and a digital sector worth £1bn a year. Many of the work-based learning opportunities offered on our courses such as placements, live briefs and guest lectures are provided by businesses and organisations based in the city.

We provide support and venues for key events in the city’s arts calendar including the Brighton Festival, the Festival Fringe, the Great Escape, the Brighton Digital Festival, Brighton Photo Biennial and the CineCity Brighton Film Festival. Other annual highlights include Pride, the Brighton Marathon, and Burning the Clocks which marks the winter solstice. Our own Brighton Graduate Show transforms our campus into the largest exhibition space in the South East as we celebrate the outstanding talent and creativity of our students.

As a student you’ll get lots of opportunities to experience these events at first hand and to develop your skills through the volunteering and other opportunities they offer.

You'll find living in Brighton enriches your learning experience and by the end of your course you will still be finding new things to explore and inspire you.

It's only 50 minutes by train from Brighton to central London and less than 40 minutes to Eastbourne. There are also daily direct trains to Bristol, Bedford, Cambridge, Gatwick Airport, Portsmouth and Southampton.

Map showing distance to London from Brighton
Brighton Beach sunset

Campus where this course is taught

City campus

Located in central Brighton, this campus is home to 3D design and craft, fine art, graphic design and illustration, digital music, digital media design, fashion and textiles, history of art and design, humanities, media, photography and film.

The facilities for making and designing, the theatre, galleries, workshops, studios, archives and the independent arts organisations based on site provide a unique and inspiring environment where creativity thrives.

St Peter’s House library and Phoenix halls of residence are close to the exhibition and learning facilities in the Grand Parade main building where you will also find the student centre with careers, counselling, student advice service and disability and dyslexia support. Edward Street provides extensive teaching and gallery space for media, photography and film.

Also on site are Photoworks, Screen Archive South East and University of Brighton Design Archives. Leading visual arts agency Photoworks runs the Brighton Photo Biennial and a national programme which frequently features the work of our graduates, staff and students. Screen Archive South East holds a wealth of material capturing life, work and creativity from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Our Design Archives received the Sir Misha Black Award for Innovation in Design Education in recognition of our contribution to design history scholarship and the quality of primary materials about British design held in the archive.

The Brighton Pavilion, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, the iconic pier and beach are a very short walk away. The independent shops and businesses of the North Laine and Kemptown, and Brighton main line station, with frequent express services to London, are 10 minutes walk.

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Grand Parade exhibition space

Accommodation

Brighton: City campus

We guarantee an offer of a place in halls of residence to all eligible students.

Halls of residence
We have halls of residence across Brighton in the city centre, Moulsecoomb, Varley Park and Falmer.

  • You'll be prioritised for accommodation in the halls that are linked to your teaching base, subject to availability.
  • City campus is linked to Phoenix halls.
    • Phoenix halls are self-catered, but if you prefer you can add in a food and drink plan.The halls are a short walk from City campus in the centre of Brighton. Public transport in the city is excellent, and there's a shuttle bus between our Brighton campuses during term time.

Want to live independently or in a university-managed house? We can help – find out more about unihomes and unilets or private renting.

Phoenix Brewery Halls Accommodation

Accommodation for City campus is in the nearby Phoenix Halls

Student kitchen in Phoenix Halls

Student kitchen in Phoenix Halls

Relaxing in nearby Pavilion Gardens

Relaxing in nearby Pavilion Gardens

Maps

City campus map

Stay in touch

Join an online event

Ask a question about this course

If you have a question about this course, our enquiries team will be happy to help.

01273 644644

Related 6 courses

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  • Digital Media Arts MA

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  • Sequential Design/Illustration MA

    Sequential Design/Illustration MA

  • Fine Art MA

    Fine Art MA

  • Photography MA

    Photography MA

‹ ›

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