Company Name: Greenside Design Center Telephone: Fax: Cell Phone: Email: infodesigncenter.co.za Website:
Course Title: Graphic Design
What is it?
Graphic Design is essentially concerned with the creation and manipulation of imagery and text to communicate a “message”. Whether a design encompasses exhibition graphics, an advertising campaign, signage systems, a book cover or a complete magazine, the designer will need to relate imagery and text in a creative, stimulating and purposeful way. Packaging or point of sale design also requires the ability to manipulate three dimensional form. Areas of employment include design consultancies and advertising agencies, exhibition design and signage companies, retail chains and print and electronic media houses.
What will I qualify with?
Qualifications Offered
Level on National Qualifications Framework
Years of full time study
Bachelor of Arts Degree in Graphic Design
6
3
Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Graphic Design
7
2
The programme is structured to facilitate in students an awareness of the interrelationship of the many facets that lead to good and responsible design. The various subjects (Principles and Theory of Graphic Design, Communications, Technology and Professional Practice and Critical Studies), are aimed to develop specific abilities, skills and bodies of knowledge, and are therefore integrated into projects supported by research and formal lectures. Projects/assignments become successively more complex, demanding increasing breadth and depth of research and analysis, and higher levels of perspicuity and sophistication in meeting the criteria of the set task. Critical Studies, although largely structured as a linear programme, supports the theory and practice of design by locating it within contemporary discourses.
The Graphic Design program is delivered as a five year sandwich course comprising of four academic years of study and one year of Professional Practice/Experiential Learning (undertaken at the end of third year). There is an exit level at the end of the third year of study where students graduate with a Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design. The BA Graphic Design degree is a 360 credit point qualification at NQF level 6 and comprises of three academic years of study. The number of credit points that are awarded to each subject relates to the number of hours per subject per year, with 1 credit point equaling ten hours. This in turn is related to the weighting of each subject which is expressed as a percentage
On successful completion of the BA Degree students can register for the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Graphic Design. The BA Honours Graphic Design degree is a 240 credit qualification at NQF level 7. It is delivered as a two year course, consisting of one year of professional practice and one year of academic study. The second year of the BA Honours degree can be completed on a fulltime or a part time basis. Both qualifications fall under NSB02 (Culture and Arts) in the subfield of Design Studies.
The first year is common to all the design courses offered by Design Center and serves as a foundation in design. It acquaints students with principles common to all design disciplines and develops communication skills and allows for experimentation in a wide variety of media (excluding digital media). The second year is more Graphic design specific by comparison in that students are exposed to design methodologies and problems pertinent to the field. In the third year, students are taught to deal with more complex Graphic design problems.
The fourth year, which constitutes the first year of the two year Honours degree, is spent in the design industry as professional practice, giving students an understanding of the demands of the working environment. Students are monitored during this year through a series of workshops. In the fifth year students are expected to show self motivation through application of the design process as experienced in the first three years of study and to apply the professional working skills gained in the Professional Practice year.
Aims
a)To equip students with the skills necessary to successfully complete the various stages inherent in the Graphic design process (analysis, recognition and postulation of a problem, research, generation of concepts, evaluation, realisation, communication);
b)To provide the student with an understanding of the commercial realities of design practice as these pertain to office procedures, legislation affecting designers, and the role of design within the larger framework of managerial and decisions making processes.
Learning Outcomes
On completion of the course the students should:
a)Produce and present a professional Graphic design portfolio;
b)Be able to plan, research and organise design projects;
c)Be creative, independent and conceptual creators, producers, problem solvers and thinkers;
d)Be able to manipulate and articulate ideas, concepts and information visually, verbally and in writing;
e)Operate industry related computer hardware and software.
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