Design Degrees Online

The Certificate in Advanced Graphic Design is designed for students who are already familiar with graphic design tools but desire to explore the complex theories and issues facing designers today. Students will focus on typography, graphic design systems, Gestalt theory, editorial design, and advertising.

Six (6) required courses:
GD2050 Typography I
GD2060 Typography II
GD2000 Graphic Design Core II
GD3400 Introduction to Magazine Design
GD2400 Introduction to Advertising Design
AS4100 Business of Design

Credit certificates
Designed for individuals seeking professional development or a focused, sequential approach to a specific discipline, credit certificates from the Corcoran College of Art + Design may be completed through part-time study in one to three years. Certificate students fully participate in classes, often with Degree students, and are held to the same high standards.

Certificates in Design prepare students to enter one of several expanding technology-based fields, or advance their current design careers. Fine Arts Certificate students access the Corcoran’s well-equipped studios, extensive offerings, and outstanding faculty. Electives are chosen in consultation with an advisor who can also approve substitutions for required courses, based on students’ prior studies or experience.

Each certificate program is either 15.0 or 18.0 credits in length. With the exception of some Botanical Art and Illustration courses, each course carries 1.5 or 3.0 credits. For a certificate to be issued, the requirements must be completed within a three-year period with a grade of C or better in each course. Students must ensure that the Office of the Registrar receives notification of their completion of high school or the equivalent before submitting their certificate request form.

The course is offered in a two year, 60 week, extended full-time (EFT), mode, requiring approximately 30 hours per week study. Taught delivery is normally timetabled across three days per week including self-directed study. The course is credit rated at 180 credits, and comprises three units as follows: Unit 1: 10, Unit 2: 70 Unit 3: 100 credits. A student has to pass all three units to be considered for the award of MA, with the award of a distinction being based on the achievement in Unit 3 only.

There are a number of key areas common to all four routes, which provide the general conceptual framework addressed on the course. In each route, the relationship between text, image and the various technologies plays a defining role.

Information design: quantitative information such as maps, statistical charts, and comparative diagrams are visualised and set in context.

Interface design: planning and visualising possible information access points, usually in interactive digital media.

Developing narratives or storytelling: through a chosen communication channel - or combination of channels - using imagery, text, sound, space and movement

Typography as a visual language: exploring how we see words

Editorial design: planning, authoring, positioning and producing printed and digital publications

3D: three dimensional artefacts, packaging and virtual environments

Image development: hand techniques, photography and digital manipulation.

There is a great deal of ‘cross-over’ within the routes in terms of skills and processes (for example, graphic designers are often required to generate or manipulate photographic imagery within their work) and students can therefore attend some workshops and seminars Whilst a student is expected to apply for a named route within the course, transferral to another route may be considered, subject to space, and agreement with the Course Director and relevant Subject Leader.

Pathway details
All applicants must specify a ‘route’ or ‘pathway’ located under ‘course title’ on the application form. We do not accept applications that have not specified a route. The routes are:
Graphic Design
Illustration
Digital Media
Photography.

Graphic Design
Graphic Design explores visual communication and the ‘visualisation of language’ through a range of methodologies, including typography and language, book and editorial design, information design, and environmental design such as site-specific signage. Conventions are challenged whilst encouraging work that is firmly located within a social and professional context. Although the Graphic Design route is mainly print-based, it encompasses a diversity of approaches including screen-based or motion graphics, packaging design and 3D artefacts.
Workshops include letterpress, print production and photography. Specialist bookbinding workshops are arranged at the London College of Communication at an extra cost of £30.00, for those who wish to take part.

Illustration The Illustration route strongly encourages personal expression and aspirations through image-making. Students develop imagery based around chosen narratives, and the concept of ’story-telling’. Alongside the development of self-initiated themes, live projects are integrated with experimental briefs to promote personal vision. Traditional concepts of illustration are challenged whilst maintaining an awareness of professional practice. Illustrators employ a wide range of mixed media, which may include hand-drawn, printed and collaged material, 3D artefacts or animation.
Workshops include drawing, silkscreen printing, etching, and photography.

Digital Media
The Digital Media route focuses on digital communication and digital environments, particularly interaction design. It draws upon the dynamic relationships between traditional print-based design and alternative forms of communication, through screen-based media. Students develop strong concepts balanced with inventive and novel content, which may involve collaboration with programmers from outside the college in realising their projects. Media applications that have become central to the route include DVD design, streaming media, dynamic web environments, motion graphics, projections and installations.
Workshops include intermediate Flash, ActionScript, After Effects and other interaction design software subject to the curriculum.

Photography
The Photography route utilises both ‘wet’ and ‘dry’ methods (traditional print techniques and digital imaging) to generate creative imagery that demonstrates depth and intensity of vision. Students are expected to undertake a high level of research and analysis in order to develop a proposal, and create a body of work around this theme. Individuality, innovation and experimentation are encouraged in order to explore photography as a potent method of visual communication.

The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Graphic Design is designed to provide graduates with advanced skills in graphic design that can enable them to keep abreast of the changing and emerging technology and subsequent trends in the industry.
The Graphic Design degree program is structured to help prepare you with a real-world understanding of the roles and responsibilities of today’s graphic designers in the modern workplace, including:
A focus on hands-on projects, professional portfolio, and résumé building.
The opportunity to gain a mastery of career and industry-relevant skills in advertising, layout, type, color, and illustration.
An emphasis on industry-current technology including digital illustration and imaging, web and multimedia.

This career-focused, graphic design degree program explores professional principles and practices in the graphic design industry, including aspects of page layout, digital graphics development, editorial design, branding and identity development, environmental graphics, packaging, prepress, interactive media design, design history, and theory.

Students will be challenged to examine and apply problem-solving techniques to the visual organization and layout of information and graphics, common business practices, advertising and marketing strategies and art direction.

Program Overview
The media arts degree program at Robert Morris University offers a stimulating learning environment where students are encouraged to explore their creative interests while developing the necessary tools to build an exciting and rewarding career in the design, communications and television/video production industries. The program equips students with a focused design education experience combined with a real-world business and communications skills curriculum. About the Program:

The program utilizes state-of-the-art facilities and is taught by professors who are practicing artists, designers, photographers, and film/video specialists. Visiting professionals from industry who are experts in their fields and student internships make important contributions to the program.

To respond to the increasingly diverse needs of the design industry and the challenge of new technology, all students sample the areas of graphic design, photography, television/video production and Web design. This enables students to choose one of these four areas with confidence for their final concentration.

Degree Options
The program offers four areas of concentration:

Graphic Design: The graphic design field is particularly diverse and continually evolving to adapt to the needs of the communications industry. Students in this concentration gain conceptual and technical skills that encourage flexibility and originality. These abilities are then developed with a focus on specific design applications. Areas addressed include corporate identity, editorial design, advertising, design for print, typography, packaging and Web design.

Photography: The photography concentration is designed for students interested in using photography as a tool for visual communication. Students learn to capture, manipulate, and print photographic images in state-of-the-art digital labs, as well as a traditional darkroom. Courses are career-oriented, and areas covered include studio and commercial photography, photojournalism, the portrait, documentary photography and portfolio preparation.

Television/Video Production: Students in this concentration learn by working behind the scenes and in front of the camera, both inside the studio and out on location. Areas addressed include motion graphics, videography, field production, editing, storyboarding and writing for the media. A regionally recognized faculty teaches the basic and advanced skills students need to be successful, utilizing state-of-the-art facilities. Students can produce their own programs for RMU-TV and get involved in production as early as the first week of their first semester in the program.

Web Design: The escalating development of PDA and cell phone technology has fueled the continued growth of the Internet and the prominence of Web design worldwide. Students in this concentration learn to build from basic coding and animation to advanced interactive design, using cutting-edge facilities on the industry-standard Macintosh platform.

Design Studios
The University’s design studios are equipped with Apple G4 and G5 workstations. The learning environment is designed to simulate an actual work setting, and faculty members are working professionals from the local design community. Because they “do what they teach,” these talented professionals help students stretch their imaginative and interpretive abilities while challenging them to apply their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems for clients. To ensure individual attention and give students the flexibility to develop individual interests, class sizes are small.

Academic Media Center
The Academic Media Center provides a learning environment for students interested in television, video, audio, photography, multimedia, producing and writing. The Center houses exceptional facilities, including the one of the largest television studios in the region, a television control room, linear and nonlinear editing suites, darkrooms, computer labs and field production equipment. This ensures that students get first-hand knowledge on the same equipment found in broadcast TV stations and corporate communications departments. In addition, the Center produces programming for RMU-TV, which is broadcast throughout campus and to the surrounding community via the local cable television system. Students participate in all phases of RMU-TV, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Student-produced programming includes news, sports, comedy and talk shows.

The Center for Documentary Production and Study
Founded in 2002, the Center for Documentary Production and Study provides students with the opportunity to write and produce documentary films, travel internationally, take special courses, attend film festivals, and meet and learn from documentary professionals from all over the world. To date, students and faculty working together have produced more than a dozen documentaries, some of which have won awards and been shown on broadcast and cable television. In the past five years, more than 100 students have received valuable experience and course credit by writing, producing, editing and screening a wide variety of documentary films. Recent student documentaries include Nursing in Nicaragua, profiling RMU student nurses providing care to poor residents of Managua, and Portrait of a Campaign, a behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 race for the office of Allegheny County chief executive.

Program Overview
The media arts degree program at Robert Morris University offers a stimulating learning environment where students are encouraged to explore their creative interests while developing the necessary tools to build an exciting and rewarding career in the design, communications and television/video production industries. The program equips students with a focused design education experience combined with a real-world business and communications skills curriculum.

About the Program:

The program utilizes state-of-the-art facilities and is taught by professors who are practicing artists, designers, photographers, and film/video specialists. Visiting professionals from industry who are experts in their fields and student internships make important contributions to the program.

To respond to the increasingly diverse needs of the design industry and the challenge of new technology, all students sample the areas of graphic design, photography, television/video production and Web design. This enables students to choose one of these four areas with confidence for their final concentration.

Degree Options
The program offers four areas of concentration:

Graphic Design: The graphic design field is particularly diverse and continually evolving to adapt to the needs of the communications industry. Students in this concentration gain conceptual and technical skills that encourage flexibility and originality. These abilities are then developed with a focus on specific design applications. Areas addressed include corporate identity, editorial design, advertising, design for print, typography, packaging and Web design.

Photography: The photography concentration is designed for students interested in using photography as a tool for visual communication. Students learn to capture, manipulate, and print photographic images in state-of-the-art digital labs, as well as a traditional darkroom. Courses are career-oriented, and areas covered include studio and commercial photography, photojournalism, the portrait, documentary photography and portfolio preparation.

Television/Video Production: Students in this concentration learn by working behind the scenes and in front of the camera, both inside the studio and out on location. Areas addressed include motion graphics, videography, field production, editing, storyboarding and writing for the media. A regionally recognized faculty teaches the basic and advanced skills students need to be successful, utilizing state-of-the-art facilities. Students can produce their own programs for RMU-TV and get involved in production as early as the first week of their first semester in the program.

Web Design: The escalating development of PDA and cell phone technology has fueled the continued growth of the Internet and the prominence of Web design worldwide. Students in this concentration learn to build from basic coding and animation to advanced interactive design, using cutting-edge facilities on the industry-standard Macintosh platform.

Design Studios
The University’s design studios are equipped with Apple G4 and G5 workstations. The learning environment is designed to simulate an actual work setting, and faculty members are working professionals from the local design community. Because they “do what they teach,” these talented professionals help students stretch their imaginative and interpretive abilities while challenging them to apply their knowledge and skills to solve complex problems for clients. To ensure individual attention and give students the flexibility to develop individual interests, class sizes are small.

Academic Media Center
The Academic Media Center provides a learning environment for students interested in television, video, audio, photography, multimedia, producing and writing. The Center houses exceptional facilities, including the one of the largest television studios in the region, a television control room, linear and nonlinear editing suites, darkrooms, computer labs and field production equipment. This ensures that students get first-hand knowledge on the same equipment found in broadcast TV stations and corporate communications departments. In addition, the Center produces programming for RMU-TV, which is broadcast throughout campus and to the surrounding community via the local cable television system. Students participate in all phases of RMU-TV, both behind the scenes and in front of the camera. Student-produced programming includes news, sports, comedy and talk shows.

The Center for Documentary Production and Study
Founded in 2002, the Center for Documentary Production and Study provides students with the opportunity to write and produce documentary films, travel internationally, take special courses, attend film festivals, and meet and learn from documentary professionals from all over the world. To date, students and faculty working together have produced more than a dozen documentaries, some of which have won awards and been shown on broadcast and cable television. In the past five years, more than 100 students have received valuable experience and course credit by writing, producing, editing and screening a wide variety of documentary films. Recent student documentaries include Nursing in Nicaragua, profiling RMU student nurses providing care to poor residents of Managua, and Portrait of a Campaign, a behind-the-scenes look at the 2004 race for the office of Allegheny County chief executive.

Graphic Design Course
Editorial Design Course
Web Design Course
Illustration and Drawing Course
Illustrated Book Design Course

Seeking world-class design to meet the needs of society

Students in this department gain professional knowledge and learn visual design techniques in order to master highly expressive and creative design arts. All students initially study essential skills for computer operations, a necessity in the field of visual design today. They can then apply their skills freely in computer-based work that is challenging and expressive. Students also try their hands at hand-painted design work. In their freshman year students learn fundamental knowledge and skills. They choose from two major disciplines in their sophomore year and select one of five courses in their junior year. Faculty members, all prominent members of the design world, offer instruction tailor-made for each student’s individual style and personality.

The design program teaches the theory and practice of graphic communications design. Our courses cover publication and editorial design, corporate identity, packaging, illustration, poster design, multimedia, experience and interactive design, etc.

This course will appeal if you want a broad experience in graphic design on which to base your career. You’ll become an all-round visual communicator with skills in typography, image making and multimedia. You’ll gain experience in identity and branding, editorial design for magazines and books, posters, packaging, exhibition graphics, websites, interactive media and motion graphics. The emphasis is on creativity and adventurous solutions, combined with high-production values and functional problem solving.

What you study

In Year 1 you focus on a wide range of graphic skills and study key software applications. In Year 2 you develop a distinctive body of work in your chosen area of practice through your selection of project briefs. You plan and develop professional and management skills and develop key software applications further in the context of production processes. In Year 3 you negotiate topics of your own choice for the final major project and dissertation, and you are given opportunities to work on live projects and competition briefs.

How you learn

The practice-based elements of all our design courses are taught in a studio environment, supported by a full range of digital resources and workshop facilities. This provides real hands-on experience using equipment and processes which are up to date. In addition to this, independent and student-centred learning are encouraged. Theoretical work is primarily delivered by illustrated lectures and seminars where there is opportunity for collective discussion. In addition to a full-time core team, most of whom are professionals from the design industry, visiting lecturers make important contributions to the delivery of the course.

Design is the perfect example of a discipline in which art is applied in daily practice. In the Bachelor’s courses, therefore, there is a strong emphasis on the various technical aspects and skills of the profession. Research, reflection and development are less prominent. These three areas are precisely where the focus of the Master of Arts in Design course lies. How does an editorial concept fit into a design process? What is the role of fashion in our present visual culture? In what way do interior architects play a pivotal role in projects? How does an integral design of public space contribute to the experience of urban space? The Master of Arts in Design looks at these questions about the ‘why’ of design. Answers to these questions are sought through reflective projects and research.

The Master of Arts in Design has four specialist areas:

Pathway Fashion Design
Pathway Interior Design
Pathway Urban Interior Design
Pathway Editorial Design

Besides, there are a few courses in Design that give you the EMMA-degree: European Media Master of Arts

More information: www.mahku.nl / http://emma.hku.nl

Course Content

It is a multifaceted course that closely mirrors the course content of the BA (Hons) Visual Communication degree at Birmingham City University. The course content includes:
Web Page Design
Typography
Illustration
Photography
Advertising
Editorial Design
Corporate Identity
Business Practice
Design History

In addition, students have the opportunity to undertake work experience during the second year of the course.
Assessment

Wide variety of assessment methods: individual tutorials, group criticism, portfolio reviews. Formal module assessments by the course team.