PROJECT TITLE: Module Title
Introduction to Visual Communication
Module Number
VIS4014
30
Module Leader
Credit value
George Hart
Contact email
Kelvin.Wong@bcu.ac.uk, jo.newman@bcu.ac.uk, James.Brierley@bcu.ac.uk, Timm.Sonnenschein@bcu.ac.uk,
Module Tutors First Attempt (where the full range of marks is available) Briefing Date
25 September 2014
Briefing Place
Teaching Room (Indicated by tutor)
Briefing Time
9.00am
Feedback date: Week after submission
Submission Date Submission Place Submission Time
Feedback time: 9am – 12pm
13 November 2014 Teaching Room (indicated by tutor)
from
9.00am
until
10.00am
Feedback place: Teaching Room
Resit and Final Attempt (The maximum mark that can be achieved is 40% unless Exceptional Circumstances have been upheld)
Resit briefing meeting to be negotiated between student and tutor
Submission Date
Friday 17 July 2015
Submission Place
VisCom Studio (417)
Submission Time
from
9.00am
until
12.00pm
Results will be published through the online mySRS portal approx. 2 weeks after deadline date. Feedback meeting to be negotiated between student and tutor. Support Available for Re-Assessment Individual tutorial support will be provided following the initial feedback session to identify assessment tasks that have not yet been achieved and to agree an action plan to be completed in preparation for the 17 July resubmission date. Specific details of the assessment requirements and dates of meetings to be arranged between student and tutor.
Late Submissions and Extensions Students with BCU student support statement: Please discuss your submission with your tutor and make a note of your submission date and time here: STAFF: Please refer to individual student support statements.
Date:
Place:
Time:
Visual Communication Module header sheet (L4 & 5)
Guidance for all Students Attendance Attendance at all lectures is compulsory – if you are unable to attend you must notify your tutor and the office via email (biadviscom@bcu.ac.uk) before the session starts. Attendance records are taken at all sessions and will be monitored. Failure to attend sessions without reason will result in discussions with senior tutors and possible withdrawal from the course. Submissions You only have two opportunities to pass each module: first and second attempts. In order to progress to the next academic year you need to have completed and passed all the modules within the academic year. If you have not passed all modules, you will be failed and withdrawn by the examination board. Your second and final attempt in a failed module will be the resit date Friday 17 July 2015 Late submissions and extensions: Submissions received after the stated deadline will be capped at 40%; Submissions received after 5 working days will be awarded 0% (unless an EEC claim is upheld – see below) Re-sits are capped at 40% th
The final 2014/2015 resubmission date is: Friday 17 July 2015 – no late submissions will be accepted. Procedures for Exceptional Circumstances (ECs) EEC claim forms and guidance notes are available to download from i-City; claims must be made 7 days prior to the submission date and evidence to support the claim is required. Under the procedures you can request to either: • Put off taking an assessment until the next time it takes place (17 July 2015). This is called a deferral. • An extension of 10 working days to the deadline Please note, you cannot ask for both an extension and a deferral at the same time for the same assessment. If you have an EC claim upheld, your mark for the assessment will not be capped. (For further details please see the VisCom office, the iCity website and / or Student Services for advice. Compensated Passes If you choose not to accept a compensated pass awarded at the Examination Board, and therefore undertake the module assessment again to try to improve your module mark from a fail to a pass, and then fail the next attempt, another compensated pass will not be offered. At that point you will be failed and withdrawn from your programme and awarded the highest qualification to which you are entitled. Useful Contacts VisCom Office: 0121 331 7842/5830/7883 - Room 404 - biadviscom@bcu.ac.uk Faculty & Exams Office: Room 345 Student Services: 0121 331 5588 - Room 371 Millennium Point Complaints & Appeals: 0121 331 7678 - Edge Room 422 City North Campus complaintsandappeals@bcu.ac.uk
Visual Communication Module header sheet (L4 & 5)
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
BA (Hons) Visual Communication
L4 Project Brief – Hidden City Subject Area
All Subjects
Module Title/Code
Introduction to Visual Communication – VIS4014
Credits
30
Level & Term
Level 4, Term 1
Tutor Contact Details
Timm.Sonnenschein@bcu.ac.uk Jo.Newman@bcu.ac.uk kelvin.wong@bcu.ac.uk balvir.nandra@bcu.ac.uk Image: Will Harris
Relevant Module Learning Outcomes
1. 2. 3. 4.
Project Description
Utilise a range of appropriate research methods to communicate an understanding of the relationship between theory and practice. Generate and develop a range of visual ideas that show the potential to communicate effectively. Demonstrate the acquisition of core technical skills through the production of visual work. Apply interpersonal and social skills in the collaborative production of visual solutions.
This launch project will seek to transform your practice, challenge your thinking, and show you new possibilities. It will feed your hunger for creative making, sharpen you up, and whet your appetite for the course. Are you ready for the challenge? The Parkside campus was designed to reflect the coming together of creative practice across disciplines. Visual Communication has this goal in its blood and this first project will give you the opportunity to learn about the difficulties (great learning experience…) and opportunities (finding your creative direction…) that arise when different individuals from a range of practices work together.
Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
BA (Hons) Visual Communication The creative industries do not stand still — what you learn today may change tomorrow. You will be supported and encouraged in embracing this, thoroughly engaging with learning to develop your own profile and momentum, to keep moving with creative practice as it develops. This project raises the bar, it aims to challenge your comfort zone, in order that you may surprise yourself with what you can achieve. The best work will not look out of place in a graduate’s portfolio. This project is not designed to be easy. You will need to engage fully with the course and each other, agreeing strategies, negotiating through difficulties. You will need to go the extra mile. This is a team project which will enable all students to have an opportunity to explore how the discreet disciplines of Visual Communication operate and how they interact and overlap. It will test your ability to collaborate, now an indispensable skill for all creatives — team working is the future. Negotiating your ideas and showing sensitivity to the needs and opportunities of others is key to successful outcomes. The creative talents of your team will be pooled to maximise the creative success of your work as you produce a magazine, which seeks to reveal the beating heart of the city. Where is the “Hidden City”? What is going on beneath the surface? What is there behind the facade — the corporate face — the tourist brochure? What can you find to document? What stories are there to be told? What communities are active? What story will you tell? Who is your audience? Ask these questions to formulate a theme for your magazine. To aspire to an outstanding result you will need to skilfully observe, record, and develop visual information. Innovate. Be original. Be bold and make clear choices. Do something you’ve never done before. Challenge the group’s imagination to develop new approaches. Be ambitious, be adventurous. Each team will have a mix of students from different disciplines, producing together a fully-realised magazine which will reflect the varied approaches and practices of individuals in a coherent piece of work. You will define an editorial manifesto and magazine title, identify your target audience, and develop your concept using text and image. As a complement to your magazine you will produce a 10 second moving-image ident to promote it to your readers. It will consist of front and back covers, with 20 pages — each team member contributing 400 words of original editorial text and producing accompanying visuals. Aim to showcase individual expression within a strong guiding idea and unifying theme for the magazine. Formative Assessment
You will have group critiques in week 4 and 7, these are developmental meetings and you will be expected to present work in progress. You need to bring your RVJ to all workchecks, critiques and tutorials.
Please note: This project brief should be read in conjunction with the module specification.
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Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
BA (Hons) Visual Communication Summative Assessment Tasks (Remember you are being assessed against the four learning outcomes, refer closely to them when preparing your final submission)
Final Visual Outcomes: You will be assessed as a team and individually, as a group you’ll have 15 minutes to present your final magazine to your tutor, a mark will be assigned to the completed magazine, which constitutes 50% of the overall mark. It is important that you prepare well for this presentation, using visual cues where necessary, a good project, presented poorly is likely to lose marks. Reflective Visual Journal: You are expected to complete an individual RVJ throughout the project, showing your research with clear annotations, your initial design ideas, why and how they were developed. Think of it as a travel journal, which charts the progress of your creative journey. It will be submitted at your group presentation. This will make up the other 50% of your final grade. Report: As part of your RVJ, you are required to construct a 500 word reflective evaluation, which summarises your creative journey and reflects on the learning process making reference to appropriate theory. th
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Assessment Dates
Assessments will take place on Thursday 13 and Friday 14 November.
Assessment Criteria
Knowledge & Understanding (Research & Audience), Intellectual Skills (Creative Thinking & Communication), Practical Skills (Technical Skills & Production), Key Transferable Skills (Collaboration & Enterprise)
Learning Resources
Bergstrom, B. ‘Essentials of Visual Communication’. Laurence King (2008) This ‘reader’ will be the principle reference for this project, other resources will be indicated as you progress through the project, you will be expected to identify your own resources, which reflect your own references for your creative journey.
Week 0
•
Allocation of design teams – mixed discipline groups – five students in each.
•
Project brief launch.
•
Introduce magazine design approaches, content ideas and examples.
•
Identify groups’ interests (discussions/ice breakers/brainstorms).
•
Define editorial manifesto and target audience.
•
Define project team roles and project and communication plan.
•
Idea generation (rough thumbnails / ideation sketches / thought maps)
•
Random games & creative strategies for ideas and possible solutions.
•
Process overview – research, design development, production.
•
What is an RVJ?
•
Final outcome speculation (digital and print).
•
Design and composition considerations – layouts/grids/page composition/visual hierarchy/typography.
Week 1
•
Visual experimentation.
•
What/who/where is the hidden city?
•
Places, people, events, communities, culture, history.
•
Developing a theme. How to avoid the obvious.
Please note: This project brief should be read in conjunction with the module specification.
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Birmingham Institute of Art & Design
BA (Hons) Visual Communication •
Establishing a title.
•
Role of documentary, narrative, fiction.
•
Content generation – groups to agree who is writing what content.
•
Project planning – groups to agree who is doing what for when.
•
Research/idea exploration/creative strategies – developing ideas for visual and editorial content.
Week 2
Week 3
•
Visual Language – typography/visual tone of voice/semiotics
•
Produce rough dummy magazine(s).
•
Discuss production.
•
Explore design considerations/tasks for your outputs.
•
Creative ideas and approaches. Means of production.
•
Reportage ideas generation – images, text, moving image, digital, copywriting.
•
Target audience and context – Who’s the magazine for? What is appropriate.
•
Editing and selection of groups’ best ideas. Maintain visual unity.
•
Finalize idea for promotional ident and plan production.
•
Make a series of related images, evolving the design development process through a continual cycle of practice and critical reflection.
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
•
Production.
•
Developing moving image promotional ident.
•
Evolving the final design.
•
Finalize production of promotional ident.
•
Refine the final design.
•
Production of final magazine layouts and ident.
•
Evaluation of contents, images, text, ordering, layout
•
Final production of magazine and ident.
•
How to write a report
•
Recapping assessment tasks and learning outcomes.
•
Finalising work/ Finishing off
•
How and who will be presenting your magazine for assessment
Assessment Presentation:
Thursday 13th and Friday 14th November 9.30am / 11.30am/ 2pm
Please note: This project brief should be read in conjunction with the module specification.
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