module specification

This module introduces a range of historical, cultural and industry contextual knowledge and practice. It enables you to carry out your creative practice in associated modules with a secure understanding of basic historic and cultural contexts, and visual communication industry practice and expectations.

The module aims to motivate you to be enquiring and to engage critically in the practice and culture of visual communication: you will be encouraged to ask questions and shown how to conduct information gathering and basic research in order to construct your answers. You will begin to acquire discipline-specific skills in designing and visual recording and communication, using industry standard techniques and media. In this way, the module will help you begin to shape their future direction of study as well as providing useful insights into your individual potential and abilities.

Co-requisite: DN3002 Visual Communication: Practice
Available for Study Abroad? NO

The module has two strands of study:

• the historical and cultural context of visual communication, and the standards and structures of contemporary industry;

• the industry-specific technical modes of practice for understanding and responding to a brief, researching, developing and executing an outcome across a range of media using experimentation and critical reflection.

In the first strand, you will be introduced to a carefully chosen range of exemplar historical periods, movements and examples of visual communication. You will study the processes, techniques, tools, formats and contents that together create visual communication outcomes in graphic design, illustration and animation. You will be asked to consider how the design reflects the social, historical, political, economic, or individual context that gave rise to it and so come to realise how you yourself are always working within a context for practice. In order to do this you will be shown how to ‘read’ a piece of visual communication, and discover how to search for information that may help you to do this.

You will also conduct case studies of contemporary designers, illustrators, animators and visual communication companies. You will seek to discover how the practice of visual communication is conducted and the range of practice and outcomes that exist in the contemporary field. Particularly, you will arrive at an understanding of how teams are constructed and work, how responsibilities are shared and how suppliers, collaborators and other specialists are engaged to fulfil the project.

In the second strand, you will be introduced to the industry standard and required practices and conventions in the manipulation and innovation of digital tools, craft-based techniques and professional processes. This will support and enable the work undertaken in the associated module, DN3002 Introduction to Visual Communication: Practice.

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 3, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. demonstrate knowledge of selected key movements and exemplars of visual communication and show with some critical understanding, how you respond to and reflect your context;

Transferable Skills

2. know how to locate, access and use a range of information sources (in libraries, collections, exhibitions, journals, e-resources) and be able to write and otherwise communicate effectively;

Subject-Specific Skills

3. have an awareness of how the visual communication sector functions commercially, across a range of formats and media and contexts;

4. describe and record the elements of visual communication outputs using industry standard techniques at a basic level;

5. apply simple industry standard practices and conventions in the manipulation and innovation of digital tools, craft-based techniques and professional processes, applied to graphic design, illustration and animation tasks;

Professionalism and Values

6. show evidence of self-reflection and an emerging awareness of your own interests and abilities and how they might relate to the visual communication sector.

Assessment for the module involves the submission of a portfolio of work as detailed in the brief set. All learning outcomes are assessed within the portfolio. Work presented must be carefully organised and labelled.

The module will be assessed through:

an illustrated essay (1200-1500 words) on a topic chosen from a list reflecting the areas of historical and contextual study studied; the essay will use academic formats, including referencing;

an illustrated case study (800-1200 words) of a contemporary graphic designer, illustrator, animator or visual communication practice, examining and describing the practice in terms of how it functions, the type of work it undertakes, how it promotes itself and constructs its practice image and reputation;

a portfolio of research, development and outcomes demonstrating your ability in a range of industry standard techniques and conventions.

Detailed requirements will be published in briefs at the start of the semester.

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

https://rl.talis.com/3/londonmet/lists/6F52791A-16F8-26D0-79AC-D40679DE18D4.html?lang=en&login=1

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/