Graphic Design with Foundation Year

Please check the Sheffield Hallam University website for the latest information.

Course summary

• Develop the knowledge, skills and attributes of graphic design practices that reflect your values, interests and career aspirations.

• Apply your skills in creative projects with professional and academic tutors and a rich industry network.

• Experiment with traditional and future-facing analogue and digital technologies in our purpose-designed studios.

• Showcase your work to the public and industry professionals via presentations, competitions and exhibitions.

If you don't meet the entry requirements for our BA (Hons) course, or you’d like extra preparation before starting degree-level study, we recommend you join the foundation year – which has been designed to encourage exploration and experimentation.

Prepare yourself for a career in the expanding field of graphic design through projects which respond to social, technological, economic and political challenges. By the end of the course, you’ll have the professional skills and knowledge to start your career in graphic design and create design solutions for the future.

This course also allows you to specialise in and receive a different named award – Graphic Design: User Experience (UX) – through focused project work in your final year.

How you learn

All our courses are designed around a set of key principles based on engaging you with the world, collaborating with others, challenging you to think in new ways, and providing you with a supportive environment in which you can thrive.

Based in our bespoke studios, workshops, and digital spaces, you’ll become part of a dynamic and collaborative learning community. Together, you’ll undertake creative adventures, explore possibilities, and challenge conventions.

Through our teaching, we help you unlock your potential to contribute as a creative thinker and doer and apply your knowledge to design practice, culture, society, and life systems.

You learn through

• Studio practice

• Workshops

• Technical demonstrations

• Group and individual tutorials

• Critiquing activities

• Lectures

• Guest talks

• Live projects

Key themes

You’ll be encouraged to develop your personal identity and unique style through a portfolio of practical work and active involvement in the industry, design identity and community. This work will demonstrate your unique strengths and interests to future employers when you graduate.

You’ll explore design practices such as:

• Typography and type design

• Brand and visual identity

• Publication design

• Digital product design

• User experience (UX)

• Design for visual arts

• Exhibition and installation design

• Motion and narrative storytelling

We encourage and support experimentation, adopting a risk-based approach where anything is possible. Across the three years of your course, you’ll explore these approaches through the hand, head and heart:

• Hand – emphasising risk through play and exploration, practical and experiential acquisition of knowledge and skills.

• Head – emphasising user research, analysis and responsible contextual application and production, while reinforcing year 1 attributes, skills and knowledge.

• Heart – emphasising the development and realisation of practitioner identity through a portfolio of practice and engagement with industry, design identity and community, while reinforcing year 1 and 2 attributes, skills and knowledge.

Course support

We’re a dedicated, qualified, and highly experienced teaching team, with world-leading research and recognised professional creative reputations, who take the time to get to know you.

Applied learning

Your course has been designed to embrace real-world challenges and provide you with the practical skills and knowledge to be successful.