module specification

This module introduces and develops a range of digital skills, alongside analogue approaches, for research and communication gathering of information and ideas for 3D disciplines. The ability to  communicate these is critical to the success of a designer in any 3D discipline.  

You will take part in a range of studio sessions, workshops and lectures that introduce and develop a variety of approaches concerning the communication of ideas. Research methods and practices that help you explore, record, select, analyse and interpret your environment through images, spaces and artefacts for a range of purposes. You will learn discipline-specific, professional approaches to recording, visualisation and presentation acquiring vital employability skills. 

Projects will explore the recording and expression of research, developmental thinking, and ideas creation. Through learning these skills, the module will support your development as a designer with an in-depth understanding of research and communication methods that underpin design process and outcome strategies and the communication of your creative practice and identity. 

Available for Study Abroad? NO

The module will deliver communication skills using both traditional and digital media to describe material, it’s construction and surface, through design ideas and proposals.

Through taught sessions and your work on your individual projects, you will develop knowledge and experience of a range of digital techniques which may include Photoshop, Rhino, Illustrator, and InDesign, depending on your discipline, alongside techniques of visual recording such as drawing, collage, photography, film (where appropriate) and annotation. 

Through the project briefs you will be encouraged to adopt a personal approach to visual research and communication relevant to the discipline, and to develop a personal interpretation of  drawing and sketching, so that fluency in this vital skill is acquired over time. 

(LO1-5) 

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.

On successful completion of the module, to the standard expected at Level 4, you will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

1. Effectively use a range of visual techniques to record, analyse and interpret your environment, its inhabitants and artefacts, and to represent your creative thinking;

Cognitive Intellectual Abilities

2. Use visual research and communication techniques to support your of design thinking, development and making;

Transferable Skills

3. Express and communicate to others, ideas or proposals employing an appropriate range of professional visual techniques and media, relevant to your discipline;

Subject Specific Practical Skills

4. Demonstrate your growing confidence in the regular use of your personal visual research and communication techniques as fundamental creative tools for design practice;

Professionalism and Values

5. Evidence research into materials and processes that support a sustainable approach to design and production in your discipline.

https://londonmet.rl.talis.com/modules/dn4020.html