BA (Hons) Visual Communication.
UCAS Code W211
Graham Tansley 0113 202 8000 graham.tansley@leeds-art.ac.uk
BA (Hons.) Visual Communication.
We’re looking for dynamic students who want to have creative, useful working lives and make a positive impact on society. People who want to develop their own approach to visual communication without limiting themselves to one medium. Students itching to change the world, who need three years of space and freedom to resolve how they’ll do that. We want independent thinkers comfortable with developing their own briefs, but also capable of serious collaboration. People who want to explore their ideas and frustrations with the world through a wide range of media, from graphic design to filmmaking. People who care about social interaction, who want to make a positive impact on the community.
Course validated by the Open University.
On this programme you’ll explore how visual communication can improve the world, and find pragmatic solutions to your idealistic concerns. You can use any of the College’s facilities to enrich your work, and you’ll spend a lot of time engaging with the community and negotiating your own briefs and placements. We’ll encourage you to be a free and critical thinker, but you’ll also bring your skills to collaborations with other students, producing significant pieces of work. You’ll always be in control of your work and there are no ‘pretend’ projects. Students receive support, rather than direction, from staff who continue to practice independently. You’ll ask yourself what’s going on in the world and who’s doing what you’re interested in. Then you’ll get involved. You’ll develop your own briefs and network with those you’ve identified to inspire, inform, support and employ you. You’ll also be encouraged to engage in voluntary work. There are no restrictions on your work and no limits on your horizons. Recently, student experiences have included setting up a charity for orphans in Nepal; curating large-scale exhibitions (including one which partnered Damien Hirst’s first major show in the North); being on tour overseas as part of a band; and working alongside graphic designers, photographers, video-makers and illustrators. Recent specialisms have included tattooing, cake-making and event management.
We’re looking for dynamic students who want to have creative working lives which make a positive impact on society.
Course Structure. Year One. You’ll develop practical skills in filmmaking, typography, photography, graphic design, illustration and book-making. You’ll collaborate with other students and explore the city’s communities, moving towards independent learning and selfdirected projects which form the foundation of your second year.
Placements. You’ll negotiate placements with businesses, charities, community organisations and individuals, lasting anything from a day to a year.
Graham Tansley Programme Leader
Year Two. You’ll identify your audiences and how you want to work in the wider world. You’ll work out the skills you need to develop to a professional standard, and apply them to real life-projects (whether self-directed, client-based or competitions). You’ll exhibit and also develop a portfolio of work to help secure work experience.
Year Three. You’ll develop professional and entrepreneurial skills in an area of practice to which you feel passionately committed, supported by an academically demanding research project and facilitated through external links, exhibitions and conferences. On graduating, you’ll be ready to make a positive contribution to your chosen profession and to society, leaving us with a bespoke skill-set and a clear strategy for moving onto employment, self-employment or further study.
Accolades.
Future Careers.
Students have won D&AD awards in disciplines including graphic design, environmental design, copywriting, animation, radio advertising and photography. Recently, they’ve won the ‘2.8 Days Later’ film award and the Woolgather Art Prize 2011.
These include community arts, film-making, curation, graphic design, illustration, photography, publishing, broadcasting, new media, teaching and much more, or higher study.