Graphic Design - MA | Edinburgh College of Art (2024)

Our programme encourages its students to take a risk, to test the boundaries of the discipline and push their design ideas beyond personally predetermined limits. The strong international student input at postgraduate level at Edinburgh College of Art, ensures these highly talented individuals bring much experience and encourage wide-ranging thinking to the studio experience. Students will develop an enhanced research and design proposal, culminating in a personal project which will reframe their chosen pathway into design.

What you will study

Students on the programme are actively encouraged to challenge their existing research and design knowledge and develop new skills and networks within and out-with their subject discipline. Postgraduate students should challenge the status quo, experiment and explore as part of their daily activity. Here you are expected to push your creative boundaries, experiment, innovate and take risks with your developing practice.

Independent study is paramount yet underpinned bya number ofsupporting projects, workshops and events. We expect collaboration within the School of Design, with the creative industries and where appropriate with external clients in order that students realise personal and project possibilities to the full. Being part of the University of Edinburgh allows access to collaborations with ground-breaking research projects.

Communication is an essential Graphic Designtooland this is explored at every level through one to one tutoring and seminar presentations and collaboratively with peers within our award-winning design agency project.

Research environment

Initially students will focus on the personal research and development of their study proposal while also engaging with a series of dynamic graphic design challenges developing skills in typography, publication design and self-promotion. With support from our dynamic team of experienced tutors (all industry practitioners or researchers) students are encouraged to expand on any preconceived ideas and let their research findings dictate future development. We expect our postgraduate students to engage in sophisticated design dialogue with tutors as a means of pushing their ideas to reach their full potential. There is a rich hotbed of debate and prototyping before any designs are taken forward into production.

We are committed to providing our students with enhanced career prospects and the ability to achieve at the highest level. Graduates are professionally vital andwell-informed, andare able toenter the design industry with a freshness of approach and the flexibility and adaptability to be able to respond to change.

Our graduates work in a wide range of creative career paths. The variety of projects, approaches and opportunities on course enable graduates to apply their knowledge and experience of the design process and their considerable skills onto many disciplines.Typicallythough our graduates leave to become valuable members of a graphic design agency.

Our extensive links with industry built through industry-led projects and staff research, and our range of visiting speakers, ensures that graduates are aware of the full range of career possibilities and are provided with a strong footing from which to develop their chosen career.

Previous career paths have included experiential design, packaging, advertising, digital design, interaction design, design research, marketing, retail design, exhibition design, multimedia, design management, education. Graduates may freelance or seek employment within a company.

If you'd like to study on a postgraduate programme at Edinburgh College of Art, you must apply through EUCLID, our online application system. You can find out how to do this on the University of Edinburgh website, where you'll also be able to:

• see detailed entrance requirements for each programme on the Degree Finder
• get information on what to expect after you apply
• find out about study modes, start dates and fees
• find out if, and how, you need to submit a portfolio, showreel or research proposal
• find out where to go for further advice and guidance.

Apply now