Hello and welcome to the History and Futures module.
As with previous modules, we expect you to engage readily on the Ideas Wall, which is an informal space to share ideas, ask questions and interact with staff and peers. Your initial ideas and research should then be expanded on your online journal or blog and distilled as a digital portfolio, which will be assessed at the conclusion of the 12 weeks.
So, why is this module called History and Futures? Over the next 12 weeks we want you to explore how to create something for the future while understanding what has happened in the past. In particular, we would like you to question the role graphic design plays in society today. To do this, we want you to analyse how graphic design can engage with narrative in order to distil, reform or remodel stories for a new purpose.
Throughout the next 12 weeks you'll explore creative disciplines such as typography, information design, publishing, content creation and political graphics. You will also develop a more in-depth, critical and contextual understanding of your personal creative approach. This will provide the opportunity to connect theory and practice together and allow you to explore the relationship between the two.
As you’ll see, this module is broken up into two briefs: Society and Purpose (a practice-based project worth 70% of your final mark) and Visual Writing (a theory-based, written article worth 30% of your final mark).
Please don't forget that we are here to help you throughout this module and have developed a series of lectures that provide insight and guidance into the research methodologies to aid your research tasks. These lectures and case studies will also explore how researching the past can help us prepare for the future. The contextual material in this module will highlight the ways in which transdisciplinary connections between artists, scientists, architects, philosophers and graphic designers have provided innovative ways to address critical problems.
You will be working towards achieving the following learning outcomes:
LO2: Contextualise – appraise the social, political and historical contexts in which design practice operates.
LO3: Analyse – evaluate research findings and use sound judgement informed by critical debate at the forefront of the academic discipline.
LO4: Distil – position a creative strategic insight that has been distilled and refined through an informed investigation.
LO6: Make – select and utilise relevant tools, skills and technologies in the delivery, iteration and sustainable production of an outcome.
LO7: Collaborate – demonstrate inclusive and empathetic strategies to plan and execute a project across distributed collaborative situations.
LO8: Design – realise a final solution that evidences its strategic journey and clear relationship between form and function.