Graphic Design

Graphic design is the practice of visual communication: using typography, image, colour, layout, and composition to convey ideas, information, and meaning to audiences across print, digital, and interactive media. It is a discipline that demands both creative imagination and rigorous problem-solving, requiring designers to understand what they are communicating, who they are communicating to, and how visual choices serve those purposes. From brand identities and editorial publications to digital interfaces, signage, and motion graphics, graphic designers shape the visual language of contemporary culture.

At Southampton Solent University, this three-year full-time programme includes a foundation year, making it accessible to students who are building their creative portfolio and visual thinking skills before entering the full degree. The programme is built around dedicated design studios where you have the freedom to explore your craft, as the current description reflects, developing your practice across both print and digital platforms. You will work with typography, image-making, layout and composition, branding and identity, digital design for screen and interactive media, and the conceptual and strategic thinking that distinguishes professional design from purely aesthetic work.

The studio environment is central to design education: it is where you develop your practice through sustained making, peer discussion, and critique, learning to work with the kind of independence and self-direction that professional design requires.

Solent's connections with the design industry create opportunities for engagement with professional contexts throughout the programme, and the combination of foundation year and studio-based learning means you develop both the skills and the portfolio of work needed to enter the competitive design graduate market.

Graduates from graphic design programmes work in design studios, advertising agencies, in-house creative teams, publishing, digital agencies, and as freelance practitioners. Roles include graphic designer, brand designer, digital designer, art director, and creative director in more senior positions. Postgraduate study in graphic design, visual communication, or a related creative discipline supports those seeking specialist expertise or teaching careers.