Graphics - Year 0

Why study with us?

To see much more of what we do please visit our website

www.cumbria.ac.uk/graphicdesign

and our course blog

http://grillust.blogspot.co.uk/

Graphic design can embrace so many different directions – it has endless potential, so many possibilities. Eventually you may become an art director or designer in a creative consultancy or work for publishing companies, magazines or newspapers. You could specialise in advertising, information graphics, promotional literature, new media, web design, motion graphics, typography or illustration. Your clients could be music companies promoting the next big thing. You could be providing information about global warming, the environment or digital games.

To achieve your goal it’s crucial that you have frequent contact with tutors. Sadly, students at many other institutions rarely see staff due to huge group sizes – happily we’re very different! We know that small year groups are best and so we recruit around twenty students each year. This means that you see us regularly and receive a massive amount of regular support and feedback. We also believe that you should work from a studio base. In our case this is a huge, dynamic, modern, multi-functioning space in which all years of our course mix, share ideas and inspire one another.

If you know that you want to be a graphic designer but feel you aren’t quite ready for entry into Year 1 of the BA(Hons) programme this is where the Foundation Entry Year (or Year 0) comes in. We give you a thorough introduction into the fundamentals of design – where ideas come from, how to nurture them and allow them to blossom. We then show you how to develop alternatives, how to question, evaluate, re-evaluate, test and navigate your solutions. We will make use of journals/sketchbooks/worksheets and get you to think out loud on paper.

This specialist, preparatory year, will provide you with all the necessary underpinning practical, technical and theoretical skills. Working with others you will experience a wide range of project work and have extensive inductions into virtually all of our technical workshops. The pace is fast, the projects are fun and successful completion of ‘Year 0’ gives you automatic progression to Year 1 of the BA(Hons) Graphic Design course.

What can this course lead to?

Our purpose is to help you graduate as a flexible, fully prepared, highly motivated, professional designer. In fact, just the type of person the creative industries are crying out for.

Our graduates go on to work for national and international design and advertising consultancies, new-media agencies, TV companies, publishing houses and newspapers.

Our reputation for excellence in the teaching of typography and magazine design means that each year a number of our graduates are head-hunted by the major magazine publishing houses including Future Publishing, IPC and Condé Nast.

Others graduates have established themselves as self-employed designers or developed design-related careers in marketing, styling and design management. For example, Dan Sutherland was grabbed by MTV upon graduation, producing many outstanding examples of animated motion graphics. He was subsequently head-hunted by RED Design in Brighton and now has his own company The Desire Path.

Upon graduation Fredrik Öst and Magnus Berg returned to their native Sweden to start their own multi-disciplinary design company Snask. Only two years after graduation they recently won the contract to produce all of the graphic design work for Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm.

Rick Banks joined London agency SEA Design, moved to This Is Real Art and now runs his own company Face37, but more importantly, he is the genius behind the typographic card game Type Trumps – sold in famous museums and galleries around the world.

2012 news, awards and jobs

This year we were visited by no less a figure than Kevin Roberts, CEO of the world’s biggest advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi! Just as enjoyable were visits from former students Ryan Young of Sell! Sell!, Gemma Rice of White Space and Sally Henderson of Media Clash. Also, freelance illustrator Lucy MacLeod came by to offer professional advice to our third year students.

As for awards: Rachy McKenzie and Ben Barrow were both winners in the YCN design awards.

Kelcey Braine was also a winner in The Creative Times Student Design Brief and Claire Wood was the winner of Cancer Research’s Race for Life T-shirt Design Competition.

Third year student Jenny Cox was shortlisted for the prestigious Folio Society Illustration Award.

We are also celebrating the fact that many third year students had illustrations commissioned by publications as diverse as Computer Arts and Singletrack. This gives them the huge advantage of graduating with published work in their portfolio.

In the toughest financial climate for years, our students have proven their worth with many already in full-time employment by September 2012 (only two months after graduating).

Sarah Gill is now working at Matter & Co.; Grace Neal at Singletrack; Mica Connelly is employed at RF Design; Sarah Swanton is at Exporta Group; Lee Freeman works for Sell! Sell!; Kelcey Braine is at Mesh Marketing; Petra Bláhová works for Lavahouse and Gary Nicholson is at TakeOff Creative. Many other students are reporting back with good news about placements, internships and agency interest.

Resources and facilities

We are immensely proud of our fantastic, huge and well-equipped studio space. It contains over eighty Mac workstations, small tutorial and lecture spaces, staff offices, and lots of space for student work bases. It also has the advantage of having an in-house reprographics department for all your printing needs. The benefits to you of working alongside students from all years of the course are immense and the mix creates an inspiring, dynamic, stimulating and continually changing environment.

Unlike most other universities, we also believe you should be able to exploit any technical areas your project work may require. We make sure you have access to computer training labs, animation suites, printmaking studios, moving image editing suites, wood, metal and plastic workshops, textile studios, photography studios and even our ceramics department! One of our students even converted a caravan into a travelling contemporary design gallery...

Please feel free to browse the photos in our course gallery of the studio, campus and resources our students use and enjoy on a daily basis.

Teaching, Assessment and Learning

We believe that assessment is not the end but the beginning of the process of learning. Feedback can come not only from lecturers, but also from their peers, or the student themselves. We have our own website with more information about teaching, learning and assessment in graphic design and illustration: www.grillust.com/tal.

What our students say

"The tutors have been excellent – very friendly and welcoming.” – Year 0 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

"It's fun, interesting and you learn a lot." – Year 0 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

"Excellent teaching, great opportunities to develop my skills and a fantastic working environment." – Year 0 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

"you get the chance to be really creative and develop your skills, with friendly and helpful tutors who are there for everyone.” – Year 0 student (2012 anonymous feedback survey)

Entry requirements 100 UCAS tariff points.

Find out more about qualification options from the UCAS tariff table.

Please check selection criteria for any additional entry requirements.

Credit and UCAS requirements UCAS code: W215 UCAS points: 100 Costs

Click to view information on your study type and home location

Full-time students

Home

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount).

As a full-time UK student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 per annum (if you're from England) or £15,795 (if you're from Scotland). You may also be eligible for a maintenance loan (up to £5,500) and a maintenance grant (up to £3,354). For more information about student loans and grants, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Access to Learning Fund
• Utilities trust

EU

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year has been set at £8,250 (including an automatic £750 fee discount).

As a full-time EU student, you are entitled to a tuition fee loan which doesn’t have to be repaid until you start earning £21,000 per annum (or the equivalent in your country). For more information about student loans, visit our student finance page.

Additional funding

National Scholarship Programme

The National Scholarship Programme is designed to support students with a household income of less than £25,000. Full-time students may be eligible for one of 110 NSP awards for full-time students worth up to £6,000.

Cumbria Bursary

The Cumbria Bursary is an annual cash award of £1,000 for up to three years of study. There are 300 Cumbria Bursaries available in 2013.

More financial support

Access to financial support doesn’t end at registration. We have several awards and support funds available to our current students, including:

• Achievement scholarships
• Outstanding performance awards
• Utilities trust

International

The tuition fee for the 2013/14 academic year is £9,960.

Fees are billed annually and may be paid by the student or a sponsor. 75 percent of the annual tuition fees must be paid before or at registration. For students requiring a Tier 4 Student Visa, a deposit of £3,500 is expected as a minimum before a CAS (Confirmation of Acceptance for Studies) will be issued. For more information, visit our international student finance page.

Early payment discount

If you are paying your own fees, you may be eligible for an early payment discount of £1,000. This discount is awarded to students who pay in full before registration.

International scholarship

If you are studying a full-time bachelor's degree (excluding teacher training and NHS-funded courses) or a top-up degree, you may be eligible for an international scholarship. The university has nine scholarships available. Find out more on our scholarships page.

Additional financial support

Our money doctors will be on hand throughout the year to help you manage your money while you’re in the UK. However, if you do happen to run into financial difficulty during your time here, you may be able to access a small emergency support fund.

Additional contact information

If you think we might be the course for you, but would like a little more information, then please follow this link. Here you can find out much more including, what our interviews are like (very friendly) and the kind of work we would like to see in your portfolio (wide-ranging).

UCAS Link

Visit UCAS

Modules

For detailed summary of all course content please read our programme specification for this course (PDF).

Course summary

Many of the students who join Year 1 of the course have normally studied for a Foundation Diploma or a National Diploma in Art and Design (or equivalent). Some applicants from other backgrounds (for example school leavers or people returning to education) may need further time and support to help develop the necessary specialist skills and experience to progress smoothly on to degree level education – this is where the Foundation Entry Year (known as ’Year 0’) comes in.

This is a one-year intensive programme that will guarantee progression on to the three year BA(Hons) Graphic Design degree. It is a practical, studio-based experience, developing your visual language through experimentation, mark-making and digital manipulation. As well as computer-based technology we introduce you to composition, shape and visual dynamics and an exciting range of workshops ranging from drawing and printmaking, through to photography and typography. You will also study the key historical and contextual events that have shaped graphic design today.

You will meet designers from the past, present and future. You will learn how to draw anything and everything. You'll become passionate about paper, colour and type. We will discuss books, films, exhibitions, the Internet, music and cake. We will expose you to lots of ways of working, from experimental to controlled, quick to quicker, immediate to considered, hi-tech to lo-tech, big to small, delicate to robust, 2D to 3D and all points in-between. Yes, sometimes your head will hurt but we promise it will be worth it!

To see what’s going on right now please visit the Course blog.

After successfully completing this year you automatically progress to the graphic design degree and it will be a step, not a giant leap. This is because at the end of the year you will be more than ready for your first year on our three-year degree course in Graphic Design.

You can see lots of current student work on our Flickr Site and also on our ISSUU Site.

You may also be interested in these courses:

Graphic Design

Illustration

Illustration - Year 0