module specification

This module prepares you for entry to the workplace, self-employment or progression to higher study through experience of professional portfolio development and presentation, experience of working in industry contexts, and of related promotional and self-promotional activities. It helps you to assess not only your position within the creative design sector but also to define your individual creative strengths and potential, and to confidently identify your route to future success. You will build on existing professional practice skills, working at a level equivalent to industry standards in teamworking, presenting, pitching and creative responses to briefs and competitions.

Through practice, you will establish a sound process for research, design development and production using recognised sector-specific strategy and practice. A program of lectures, workshops, seminars and assignments, will prompt the investigation and analysis of the forms, properties and qualities of a wide range of professional practice fundamentals, for example, digital portfolios, self-branding and promotion, event design and management, costing, copyright laws and offline and online content creation.

You will be supported to develop networking skills, through specially arranged workshops and talks with industry professionals and successful graduates from the course, as well as outside the University at industry events. You will be shown how to reach out to potential employers for work placements, internships and job opportunities. 

You will experience work-related learning through live exhibition, competition or simulated consultancy or work placement. You will refine a range of transferable skills in communication, management, research and analysis and will be encouraged to reflect and report on the work-relevant skills that you have developed throughout. These skills are advantageous for all graduates and include (for example): action planning, contribution to professional meetings, entrepreneurship, acting as a consultant, goal setting, negotiating, networking, project management, self-appraisal and team working. Activities undertaken in this module will help to prepare you for the launch of your  individual design practice during the final degree show and subsequent employment applications.

During this module you will:

• research, analyse, and adapt your practice for sector-specific professional conventions in relation to real-world employment, exhibition or competitive situations;

• develop professional entrepreneurial processes for the generation, development, testing and pitching of concepts in response to specified clients and audiences;

• plan and manage self-promotion activities and exhibition, client or employer project pitching from inception to delivery, within commercial timeframes, developing strategies to maximise your chances of success;

• employ professional standards in the manipulation of appropriate media for the communication and presentation of your design identity and specific concepts;

• review competitor practices in relation to employment preparation or freelance self-promotion and build enterprise strategies for consultancy practice.

Pre-requisite: DN5026 Work Ready Level 5

Available for Study Abroad? NO

The module will cover sector-specific approaches to:

• primary and secondary case study research;

• professional networking;

• working with teams in a professional context;

• professional communication and dissemination skills;

• negotiation, collaboration and enterprise development;

• presentation of progress and findings;

• development of a career plan from reflection on your research and experience;

• project pitching and client fostering;

• analysis of own and other competitor professional practices;

• legal and ethical frameworks for freelance/ consultancy practice;

• digital and photographic presentation techniques for portfolio and practice;

• self-promotional skills – visual, verbal and text-based.

Scheduled teaching provides the guidance and foundation to ensure that independent study is effective in addressing the module’s learning outcomes and assessment tasks.

In-class activity makes use of varied student-centred approaches such as active, flipped and blended learning, so that a range of learning strategies is deployed, and individual learning styles are accommodated. Information is provided through a range of means and sources to minimise and remove barriers to successful progress through the module. The course team seeks to embed the University’s Education for Social Justice Framework in fostering learning that is enjoyable, accessible, relevant and that takes account of the social and cultural context and capital of its students.

Activities foster peer-to-peer community building and support for learning. Reflective learning is promoted through interim formative feedback points that ask students to reflect on their progress, receive help where they identify the opportunity for improvement in learning strategies and outcomes and make recommendations to themselves for future development. Throughout the module, students build a body of work, including written reflections on progress and achievement.

The School’s programme of employability events and embedded work-based learning within the curriculum supports students’ personal and career development planning. Through these initiatives, students are increasingly able, as they progress from year to year, to understand the professional environment of their disciplines, the various opportunities available to them, and how to shape their learning according to their ambitions.

When not attending timetabled sessions, you will be expected to continue learning independently through self-study. This typically will involve reading books and journal articles, going to galleries and exhibitions, working on individual and group projects, undertaking preparing project work and presentations, and preparing for deadlines. Your independent learning is supported by a range of excellent facilities including online resources, the library and Weblearn and Linkedin Learning, the online learning platform.

On successful completion of the module, to the standard expected at Level 6, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. apply discipline specific professional presentation standards enabling competitive advantage within both real-world and simulated contexts;

Cognitive Intellectual Abilities

2. generate, test and pitch design proposals for a specified employer, client or audience, showing complex conceptual thinking, project differentiation, critical analysis, and the development of individual creative identity;

Transferable Skills

3. demonstrate active reflection, effective and professional-standard project planning and design management skills, managing communication, negotiation, and liaison with stakeholders, individually and within teams;

Subject Specific Practical Skills

4. present and position your creative identity effectively with reference to other visual communication practices, through a range of sector-specific media and formats appropriate to a specific career path and proposed area of practice;

Professionalism and Values

5. understand the roles, responsibilities and associated expertise of practitioners in the visual communication sector and work effectively in that context;

6. ensure that social, cultural, ethical, and environmental contexts are engaged in the professional environment, alongside economic and business factors.

The module will be assessed through the submission of an academic portfolio of work addressing the module’s learning outcomes. Precise requirements for submission will be given in project briefs.

A fully professional standard of portfolio organisation, presentation and annotation is required, alongside outcomes produced through recognised sector-specific professional tools and practice, applied to a high standard.

Work must be carefully organised and presented to communicate the development of ideas and the content must be clearly labeled with name, student number, module code and date.

You must attend and engage with all timetabled studio and workshop sessions and tasks set both in-class and as self-study.

http://Link to digital reading list

Journals:
Creative Review
Eye Magazine
Varoom
Printed Pages

Websites:
linkedinlearning.com
eyeondesign.aiga.org
creativereview.co.uk
itsnicethat.com
theaoi.com/varoom
lectureinprogress.com
creativeboom.com/