Graphic Design MA at Coventry University

This Graphic Design MA course is aimed at those who want to enhance their existing professional portfolio and expand their understanding of current and emerging trends in graphic design practice.
Developed in partnership with commercial directors, designers, photographers and typographers, our course is aimed at those who want to enhance their existing professional portfolio and expand their understanding of current and emerging trends in graphic design practice.

Learning by doing, you should explore a range of design methodologies, then put them into practice with ‘live’ collaborative briefs, creating valuable links with the professional design community. 

We aim to provide you with opportunities to start developing your professional, entrepreneurial, creative and technical skills to enable you to harness radical, original approaches and solutions to current visual communication design issues, working freelance or in-house across the globe.

Why Coventry University?

An award-winning university, we are committed to providing our students with the best possible experience. We continue to invest in both our facilities and our innovative approach to education. Our students benefit from industry-relevant teaching, and resources and support designed to help them succeed. These range from our modern library and computing facilities to dedicated careers advice and our impressive Students’ Union activities.

Course information

This course explores the ever-changing landscape of graphic design, rethinking visual language by emphasising style, effective communication and future contexts.

It aims to engage you in diverse forms of traditional and contemporary media to build critical understanding, enhancing your individual design thinking and practical experience within the context of an international perspective, a range of contemporary issues and exciting new trends – from generative and gaming design, modular layouts and modern ‘retro’ to the positives of negative space and the brightest pastels.

A strong, ideas-based course, it is focused on practical outcomes, which combine visual and written language, achieved through intensive and challenging creative briefs, underpinned by sound academic research, self-critical reflection and contextually relevant practice. Students participate in projects that range across many topical and current themes in design, including globalisation, ethics, sustainability and the environment. Students also engage in graphic design practices, such as typography, photography, copywriting, art direction, animation and interactive design.

The course is suitable for those who have already undertaken a sustained period of creative practice in education or industry, and who wish to enhance their career as designers or art directors. We benefit from an international cohort of students, particularly recruiting from China, India, Africa, Cyprus and Europe, which provides an international perspective from the associated peer learning opportunities.

Career prospects

The practical nature of the course has been designed specifically for the development of professional careers within the creative industries.

You will be encouraged to adopt a creative, enquiring and critical approach to the graphic image and its uses in contemporary practice. Furthermore, you will graduate with relevant industry experience, having worked with a variety of design professionals.

Depending on your individual study, you may also benefit from a range of transferrable skills highly sought after by future employers, including: team working, working independently, critical thinking, report writing, project management, ideas generation, presentation and finance.

National and international graduate career prospects are many and varied and include: education, curating, film, television, special effects, print and publishing, multimedia, advertising, animation, moving image, web and interactive design, video games, music, marketing and public relations. We aim to equip our students to be able to pursue graphic design, typographic design, type design, website design, new media design, magazine design publishing, art direction, design management or research.

Where our graduates work

Recent graduates have gone on to undertake PHDs, to lecture, to work as graphic designers for Leisure concepts, BYG Systems Limited, Opus books and Country Wide groups.