Graphic Design

Graphic design is the practice of creating visual communication that conveys ideas and information with clarity, impact and aesthetic purpose. Typography, image, colour and composition are the designer's fundamental tools, deployed across print, screen, digital and environmental media to build brands, communicate ideas, guide users and create visual systems that work consistently and purposefully across many applications. The discipline sits at the intersection of art and commerce, and graphic designers are among the most broadly employed of all creative graduates, working across advertising, publishing, digital product companies, cultural institutions and in-house brand teams.

At Leeds Arts University, a specialist arts university, graphic design is studied within a concentrated creative environment where making and thinking are equally valued. You will develop your practice through workshops, briefs and collaborative projects, engaging with a range of graphic design disciplines and learning to work with both new and traditional technologies and processes. The programme runs full time over three years and takes place within a creative community that gives you daily exposure to the thinking and practice of students working across art, design and fashion, which is itself a creatively stimulating context for developing a design practice.

You will develop competence in typography, visual identity, editorial design, screen-based design, print production and the critical thinking needed to engage with design history, theory and contemporary practice. You will build a portfolio that reflects both your technical range and the quality and originality of your creative thinking.

Graduates from graphic design programmes at Leeds Arts work as graphic designers, brand designers, typographers, art directors, motion designers and visual communicators across creative agencies, design consultancies, in-house teams, publishers and the cultural sector. Postgraduate study in graphic design, design leadership or related creative fields is also an option for those seeking further development.