Graphic Communication (with Integrated Foundation Year) - BA (Hons)

Norwich University of the Arts

This unit focuses on helping you to understand your practice in a wider context through collaboration and interdisciplinary working, with the opportunity to test different working practices. You may, for example, get involved in collaborations within your course which explore generic team-working skills, cross-course collaborations and/or collaborations with industry. Working with other groups will help you to understand your own discipline from alternative perspectives and allow you to learn new skills and gain knowledge from colleagues. Team-working, project management and the ability to communicate effectively with a variety of stakeholders are essential skills that you will develop as part of this unit.

This unit will enable you to expand your specialist knowledge and skills and help you to identify areas for personal development through independent study. You will be asked to consider your work in different ways and how it is situated within a global context. You will be expected to advance your understanding of the challenges faced in protecting and improving the world we live in, and consider how your practice can be used to raise awareness and solve problems. We will help you develop your critical evaluation skills and encourage reflection on your creative practice in terms of the professional, commercial, ethical, sustainable and contextual influences that surround it. The unit will support you to continue to develop your research, analysis and communication skills, exploring writing for different audiences, how to develop an argument and presenting your findings succinctly.

This is the first and shorter of the two units that make up your final year of undergraduate study. The purpose of this unit is to develop your transferable skills in the areas of research, practice and careers. Guided study and independent learning will help develop your understanding of how to initiate and plan projects that extend your practice and enable you to work towards realising your career aspirations in their widest sense. You are expected to identify the skills, knowledge, methods, processes and materials needed to advance your learning, and with the support of your tutors, independently develop the expertise required to execute your final project(s) in the next unit.

This is the second and final of the two units that make up your final year of undergraduate study. The unit is a culmination of your study at degree level and builds on everything you've learnt so far. Engaging with this unit will enable you to advance your practice to a professional level and sharpen your career preparations to ensure you are well on your way to getting your first job, starting your business or enrolling in post-graduate study. The Final Project Proposal, developed and submitted for unit BA3a will form a basis for navigating this unit. While it is natural for some ideas to change as your project develops, there should be a clear rationale for any changes you propose to make, and these will be articulated through your Project Evaluation Document submitted at the end of the unit.

Within this Unit you will use and build upon the skills acquired within BA0a to begin to develop your creative language, continuing to use key techniques of research, questioning, ideas development and realisation. You will be asked to consider what it is that you would like your work to communicate and how you can use process, media and context to manipulate modes of communication. It is at this time that you will either, further ally yourself within you chosen area of study, or seek to move into course areas that best reflect your interests. You may begin to wonder whether your initial choice of course was the right one. If this is the case, it is within this Unit you may negotiate with tutors your future specialism, as you enter into the next Specialist Study Unit. Should you seek to renegotiate your course of study you will need to satisfy the course team of your chosen course that you are in good academic standing and that your work supports the case for course transfer. The option for course transfer will not be available in unit three, Specialist Study.

This unit is designed to help you to develop the practical skills and awareness of processes and research methods that are fundamental to developing a sustainable creative practice. You will be encouraged to develop a questioning and experimental approach to both your practice and thinking. Adapting to the working patterns and the level of enquiry, required for University study, can be difficult and this Unit will enable you to establish the tools and methods to navigate your studies successfully. Key to the success of this Unit is the ability to test, question, record, and develop responses to the projects set, and to allow ideas to emerge from a process of experimentation, reflection and editing. Seldom is the first idea the best idea and you will be encouraged to explore your work from multiple directions, allowing you to arrive at the best solution for any given problem. You will also be introduced to the mapping skills that will allow you to develop an understanding of the context of your emergent work that will lay the foundation for further studying and career goals.

This unit continues to build upon the skills and knowledge initiated in BA0a and BA0b. You will continue to work with staff and students from your chosen course of study. In this respect, the Unit focuses upon specialist aspects of arts, design, architecture, performance or media practice. You will be asked to pose your own research questions, map your practice thematically and contextually and navigate set projects from you own areas of specialism. At this stage you will have begun to establish the early building blocks of your creative practice, utilising practical skills, skills in reflection and contextualisation. You will be encouraged to engage iterative processes from within your chosen specialism, demonstrating a willingness to test, edit and refine your work through to resolved outcomes. You will also be asked to make good use of self-evaluation and feedback to support you through the process of development and improvement as you seek to best express your ideas.