Curious about studying Graphic Design with Foundation Year - BA (Hons)at Bucks New University? We've gathered all the key details—entry requirements, modules, fees, and more. Hear from real students by checking out reviews, or take the next step by booking an open day to explore it for yourself.
Bachelor of Arts (with Honours) - BA (Hons)
High Wycombe Campus
Full Time
Sep 2027
4 Year
This course is offered as four-year programmes, including an initial Foundation Year. The Foundation Year will allow you to develop your academic study skills and build confidence in your abilities, identifying your own strengths and development needs for progression onto an undergraduate programme.
Why study at Buckinghamshire New University?With a history of delivering industry-standard graphic design education for more than 30 years, Buckinghamshire New University is the perfect place to start your creative career. As a well-established course, we have built up an excellent network of Alumni. Many are now in senior positions in the design world, both nationally and internationally, whom we can call upon.Led by our enthusiastic and dedicated team of design practitioners and experienced academics, you’ll benefit from their industry knowledge and network of professional they bring to the course. And with London only a short journey away, you can take the opportunity to visit some of the world’s best exhibitions, galleries, and museums for inspiration.
What facilities can I use?You’ll be encouraged to explore both traditional and current mediums to craft your design solutions, you can do this through our;silkscreen equipmentplotter cuttersletterpress equipmentphotography studioslitho equipmentlaser cutting3D printing technologyAdobe Creative CloudThe Graphic Design course itself is situated in an open plan studio alongside the Creative Advertising course, meaning you get to experience how a working advertising and design agency would run in the real-world.
What will I study?Studying on the course will help prepare you for this continually expanding field. Not only will we support you as an individual in the development of your visual and creative problem-solving skills, but we also equipped you with the knowledge and confidence to enter and negotiate your career in this challenging, but exciting field.Over the course of the degree, you'll be given lots of opportunities to explore the diverse world of graphic design and its practice, including vital skills in creative problem solving, research methods, team working, project management, presentation skills, design strategy, art direction and independent learning.Through practical hands-on, project-based learning you'll explore the fundamental core aspects of the subject like typography, narrative structure, hierarchy, layout and composition, information design, image creation and conceptual thinking skills.You’ll develop your historical perspectives, research, and writing skills and gain the academic grounding on which to develop critical understanding and practical application. As well as this you'll explore the many workshop facilities and equipment our design department has to offer, from laser cutting and letterpress printing, to photography and the Adobe Creative Suite. Our experienced technical instructors will be there in your workshop sessions to support you with your activities and help bring your ideas to life.We always encourage our students to take risks in their work and learn to challenge established languages and processes through questioning and individual experimentation. All our modules on this course reflect this ethos, they are in place to help you form and consolidate presentation, critical and strategic thinking, and complex problem-solving skills, whilst at the same time developing and refining practical design abilities.
This interdisciplinary theory-based module introduces you to the skills and perspectives needed to research, analyse, speak and write about images, objects and designed spaces. It familiarises you with historical and contemporary topics and issues, alongside the development of skills in research, critical analysis and communication, and interpretive strategies appropriate to studio-based art & design disciplines.
This module will introduce you to a range of creative skills taught in the Red Shed Workshops, as well as through Adobe technologies. These are skills you will use throughout your time at BNU and into industry. You'll develop a range of approaches and develop executions that communicate across a range of media to reach a defined audience. You will be able to evaluate the specific skills you are learning and contextualise the appropriateness of each through creative briefs, as you start to hone your creative and communication skills.
This module supports you to explore, critically reflect, and understand how the various applications of type and image can be employed for the purpose of communicating messaging and meanings to an intended audience. This module has been designed to provide orientation in initiating and executing a project via a brief.
This module provides the basis for establishing key methods of working which are fundamental to a conceptual and creative course. Its key purpose is to change the way you think in your approach to solving problems and idea generation, through a series of diverse activities and projects to broaden your perceptions, experience, and reference points.
This is a practical hands-on module comprising of workshop-based activities and projects based on the design cycle to manifest ideas utilising the following: Sketch book skills, hand drawn and digital typography, collaging and mastering a range of drawing techniques.
On this module you’ll be presented with key global debates which impact our lives and could influence your creative practice and positions as creatives in ever-changing professional industries. Through research and critical reflection, you’ll explore these issues which may be related to sustainability, politics and other ecological or socio- economic factors, and respond to them creatively using your chosen discipline-specific practice.
Drawing on the knowledge, understanding and skills acquired at Level-4, this module offers a more focused and critical approach to issues and concerns surrounding visual and material culture, and contemporary art & design practice.
This module aims to support your employability by encouraging you to consider and evaluate your graphic design and illustration practice within a professional context, and to develop an understanding of the key considerations required to develop and support practice.
This module requires you to explore and expand your subject knowledge of editorial design, both intellectually and practically. You’ll have the opportunity to utilise, either or both, digital and print contexts, through the creative act of generating ideas, content, development, visualising using type, image, layout, composition, and sequencing.
The module helps you to identify and/or solve a problem/s, compare and test a variety of ideas, and explore and experiment with intellectual and creative content to effectively apply creative and professional outcomes within the context of a branded experience.
This industry focused module helps you better understand the creative standards needed to work in a contemporary design and communications industry and encourage a wider appreciation and understanding of the creative sector, and its social and ethical responsibility.
You are provided with an opportunity to sustain the creative dialogue between your research and subject-based practice, enabling you to establish your professional and creative identity through a self-directed brief/proposal.
The Level 6 Contextual and Historical Studies Dissertation is a distinguishing feature of a BA (Hons) studio-based discipline. The dissertation is a response to your emerging, subject specific interests and a chance to showcase your academic and communication skills in your chosen format.
This module will enhance your understanding and appreciation of the roles, relationships, and responsibilities that can play a major part in progressing and sustaining your professional practice. Extending your work in relation to career aspirations, you’ll develop visual, verbal and written presentation skills to support communication with employers.
This puts focus on knowledge and skills to support professional practice in the visual arts, design and the creative industries. You’ll develop in-depth knowledge of your chosen field of practice, which will support the critical appraisal process and inform the social and professional context for your work.
This module encourages you to respond to a relevant work-based learning opportunities including industry briefs, competition entries or a personally initiated live project by negotiation with your tutor.
Foundation Year
4.4Bucks New University (BNU) is a student-focused university based in High Wycombe, with over 130 years of educational his...
