C10308v3 Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication
Award(s): Bachelor of Design in Visual Communication (BDesign)UAC code: 602070 (Autumn session)
CRICOS code: 077339C
Commonwealth supported place?: Yes
Load credit points: 144
Course EFTSL: 3
Location: City campus
Overview
Course aims
Career options
Innovation and Transdisciplinary program
Course intended learning outcomes
Admission requirements
Inherent requirements
Applications
Assumed knowledge
Course duration and attendance
Course structure
Course completion requirements
Course diagram
Course program
Honours
Other information
Overview
This distinctive degree explores diverse forms of visual communication across design, culture and media. Visual communication students acquire in depth understanding of the histories, practices and meanings of the visual world. In turn, obtaining the visual knowledge and skills required to negotiate rapidly changing technology, visual media and culture while becoming skilled in apprehending the unprecedented pace at which visual images, visual technologies and information data are produced.
Students immerse themselves in a practice-oriented, studio-based culture, studying a range of interdisciplinary subjects encompassing typography, interaction and image-making. With access to a dedicated, fully-equipped studio space that brings the learning experience even closer to the realities of commercial practice. Taught by experts in visual communication, students learn everything from the history and theory of visual culture and technology to producing cutting edge creative work in digital media, interaction design, photography, editorial design, information visualisation, web design, wayfinding, mobile apps, code, machine learning, motion graphics, the internet of things and 3D technologies such as VR/AR and 3D printing. Exploring both traditional and experimental research methods students learn to produce conceptually rigorous and socially responsive work. They graduate with the capacity to work across and between disciplines, to articulate design practices and processes, and to apply them to complex problems. Graduates develop industry experience through the degree's emphasis on addressing real-world issues in collaborative and team-based work.
Course aims
The degree has a hands-on, studio-based culture that is supported by a strong historical and theoretical component. Academics encourage both innovation and experimentation in research and practice to help students make work that is conceptually rigorous and ethically responsive.
Offering a variety of interdisciplinary subjects, graduates are able to move into their professional lives with the diverse knowledge and skills required to work collaboratively and across disciplines. All students work with industry clients on real-world projects and undertake work experience during their degree.
Career options
There are many career options in a range of fields for graduates, such as digital media, publication designer, graphic designer, interaction designer, interactive media designer, web designer, branding specialist, art director, motion graphics designer, advertising, illustrator, and exhibition designer. Graduates are also equipped with the skills to become writers, researchers, editors and critics, and to apply design thinking in a non-design industry business.
Innovation and Transdisciplinary program
Transdisciplinarity and Innovation at UTSAll UTS students have the opportunity to develop distinctive capabilities around transdisciplinary thinking and innovation through the TD School. Transdisciplinary education at UTS brings together great minds from different disciplines to explore ideas that improve the way we live and work in the world. These offerings are unique to UTS and directly translate to many existing and emerging roles and careers.
Diploma in InnovationThe Diploma in Innovation (C20060) teaches innovation, supports personal transformation and provides the hard skills needed to support the inventors and inventions of the future. Students come out of the Diploma in Innovation, with the hard skills to create and support sectoral and societal transformation. Graduates are able to fluently integrate ideas, across professional disciplines and are inventors of the future.
All UTS undergraduate students (with the exception of students concurrently enrolled in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation) can apply for the Diploma in Innovation upon admission in their chosen undergraduate degree. It is a complete degree program that runs in parallel to any undergraduate degree. The course is offered on a three-year, part-time basis, with subjects running in 3-week long intensive blocks in July, December and February sessions. More information including a link to apply is available at https://dipinn.uts.edu.au.
Transdisciplinary electives programTransdisciplinary electives broaden students' horizons and supercharge their problem-solving skills, helping them to learn outside, beyond and across their degrees. Students enrolled in an undergraduate course that includes electives can choose to take a transdisciplinary subject (with the exception of students concurrently enrolled in the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation). More information about the TD Electives program is available here.
Course intended learning outcomes
| A.1 | Establish and develop a sustainable, informed and ethical position towards social and cultural issues. |
| A.2 | Engage critically in urgent ecological issues in practice-led projects. |
| A.3 | Practice cultural principals and protocols required to work in Indigenous contexts. |
| C.1 | Work cooperatively and professionally as part of a team, initiate partnerships with others, take a leadership role when required, and constructively contribute to peer learning. |
| C.2 | Communicate an informed well-researched viewpoint. |
| C.3 | Communicate ideas effectively in a variety of ways, including oral, written and visual. |
| I.1 | Create designs that respond to their context in formally or conceptually innovative ways. |
| I.2 | Advance ideas through an exploratory and iterative design process. |
| I.3 | Independent development of high level technical and craft skills for the production, presentation and documentation of work. |
| I.4 | Ability to innovatively and critically use a variety of digital technologies. |
| P.1 | An ability to critique your own work and the work of others with reference to standards drawn from contemporary design practice. |
| P.2 | Awareness of and/or engagement with the local and global design community. |
| P.3 | Understanding of academic and professional ethics, copyright and appropriate acknowledgement of intellectual property. |
| P.4 | Independently engage in self-directed learning and select and apply appropriate methodologies specific to the project. |
| P.5 | Students will have knowledge of Indigenous Australian contexts to apply professional capabilities when working with and for Indigenous peoples across Design in Visual Communication projects and industry. |
| R.1 | Source, evaluate and utilise appropriate academic and professional references. |
| R.2 | Employ a range of qualitative research approaches including practice-led visual and material exploration and social and participatory methods. |
| R.3 | Analyse, synthesise and formulate complex ideas, arguments and rationales and use initiative to explore. |
| R.4 | Demonstrate knowledge of design history and theory and to place creative practice within a historical and theoretical framework. |
| R.5 | Reflect and engage in self-critique and critical thinking. |
Admission requirements
Applicants must have completed an Australian Year 12 qualification, Australian Qualifications Framework Diploma, or equivalent Australian or overseas qualification at the required level.
UTS: Design, Architecture and Building may consider applications based on the results of the Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) if students lack academic qualifications but have extensive professional experience. The STAT is conducted through the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).
Students must refer to the inherent requirements for all degrees offered by Design and Architecture in the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building.
Non-current school leavers are selected on the basis of academic merit or on the basis of portfolio and interview rank.
Students must refer to the portfolio eligibility for the faculty’s consideration in order to get a place.
The English proficiency requirement for international students or local applicants with international qualifications is: IELTS Academic: 6.5 overall with a writing score of 6.0; or TOEFL iBT: 79-93 overall with a writing score of 21; or AE5: Pass; or PTE: 58-64 with a writing score of 50; or C1A/C2P: 176-184 with a writing score of 169.
Eligibility for admission does not guarantee offer of a place.
International students
Visa requirement: To obtain a student visa to study in Australia, international students must enrol full time and on campus. Australian student visa regulations also require international students studying on student visas to complete the course within the standard full-time duration. Students can extend their courses only in exceptional circumstances.
Inherent requirements
Inherent requirements are academic and non-academic requirements that are essential to the successful completion of a course. For more information about inherent requirements and where prospective and current students can get assistance and advice regarding these, see the UTS Inherent requirements page.
Prospective and current students should carefully read the Inherent Requirements Statement below and consider whether they might experience challenges in successfully completing this course.
UTS will make reasonable adjustments to teaching and learning, assessment, professional experiences, course related work experience and other course activities to facilitate maximum participation by students with disabilities, carer responsibilities, and religious or cultural obligations in their courses.
For course specific information see the Faculty of Design, Architecture and Building Inherent (Essential) Requirements Statement.
Applications
International students
International students (excluding those studying in an Australian high school) must submit an application to UTS International (in person, by mail or online) or through an accredited UTS representative.
International students with an ATAR up to five points below the minimum cut-off must submit the following material:
- a six-page digital portfolio in PDF format (landscape) of their work; this may include images, animation or video (max. size 5MB)
- one of the pages must be a 150–200-word written submission that selects and identifies one of the submitted pieces of work, and addresses the aim of the work and why it succeeded (to enable this PDF to be easily viewed, text must be supplied in 16-point Helvetica font, with 1.5 line spacing).
The faculty reserves the right to request a portfolio from applicants.
Assumed knowledge
Any two units of English.
Design and Technology, Visual Arts are recommended.
Course duration and attendance
The course is offered on a three-year, full-time basis. Students may study this program part time after consultation with the program director.
Course structure
Students must complete 144 credit points made up of 108 credit points of core subjects, 24 credit points of design studies and 12 credit points of electives.
Course completion requirements
| STM91427 Core Subjects (Visual Communication) | 108cp | |
| STM91882 Design Studies | 18cp | |
| STM91883 Electives Choice | 18cp | |
| Total | 144cp |
Course diagram
Course program
A typical program is shown below.
| Autumn commencing, full time | ||
| Year 1 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87631 VC Design Studio: The Politics of Image and Text | 12cp | |
| 87100 VC Design Theory: Critical Approaches to Visual Culture | 6cp | |
| 85503 Thinking Through Design | 6cp | |
| Spring session | ||
| 87632 VC Design Studio: The Ethics of Image and Text | 12cp | |
| 87222 VC Design Project: Symbols, Systems and Visual Play | 6cp | |
| 85502 Researching Design Histories | 6cp | |
| Year 2 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87731 VC Design Studio: Narrative, Form and Time | 12cp | |
| 87441 VC Project: Contexts of Visual Communication | 6cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
| Spring session | ||
| 87443 VC Project: Typography in Context | 6cp | |
| 87009 VC Design Studio: Visualising Experience | 12cp | |
| Select 6 credit points from the following: | 6cp | |
| 85202 Designing Social Change | 6cp | |
| 85001 The Bio Kitchen | 6cp | |
| 88015 Global Studio A | 6cp | |
| Year 3 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87832 VC Design Studio: Design Practice | 12cp | |
| 87011 VC Project: Visual Communication and Emergent Practices | 6cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
| Spring session | ||
| 87012 VC Project: Research Through Design | 6cp | |
| 87010 VC Design Studio: Socially Responsive Design | 12cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
| Spring commencing, full time | ||
| Year 1 | ||
| Spring session | ||
| 87631 VC Design Studio: The Politics of Image and Text | 12cp | |
| 87222 VC Design Project: Symbols, Systems and Visual Play | 6cp | |
| 85502 Researching Design Histories | 6cp | |
| Year 2 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87632 VC Design Studio: The Ethics of Image and Text | 12cp | |
| 87100 VC Design Theory: Critical Approaches to Visual Culture | 6cp | |
| 85503 Thinking Through Design | 6cp | |
| Spring session | ||
| 87443 VC Project: Typography in Context | 6cp | |
| 87009 VC Design Studio: Visualising Experience | 12cp | |
| Select 6 credit points from the following: | 6cp | |
| 85202 Designing Social Change | 6cp | |
| 85001 The Bio Kitchen | 6cp | |
| 88015 Global Studio A | 6cp | |
| Year 3 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87731 VC Design Studio: Narrative, Form and Time | 12cp | |
| 87441 VC Project: Contexts of Visual Communication | 6cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
| Spring session | ||
| 87012 VC Project: Research Through Design | 6cp | |
| 87010 VC Design Studio: Socially Responsive Design | 12cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
| Year 4 | ||
| Autumn session | ||
| 87832 VC Design Studio: Design Practice | 12cp | |
| 87011 VC Project: Visual Communication and Emergent Practices | 6cp | |
| Select 6 credit points of options | 6cp | |
Honours
The Bachelor of Design (Honours) (C09131) is available to meritorious students with an additional one year of full-time study.
Applications are submitted via the UTS Study website.
Other information
Further information is available from the UTS Student Centre on:
telephone 1300 ask UTS (1300 275 887)
or +61 2 9514 1222
Ask UTS
UTS: Design, Architecture and Building