Develop your existing knowledge and experience as a designer, exploiting our significant research expertise to enhance your own design and research skills to a new level.
We place emphasis on personal research, giving you the chance to develop your own interests and ideas in a challenging and supportive environment. Our aim is to help you to become a creative, imaginative and versatile packaging designer who can operate independently or as a member of a design team.
You can work alongside our packaging design consultancy, Design Futures, and with researchers from other design areas. We also have contacts with leading design agencies and design organisations and encourage you to work collaboratively with them.
There are opportunities to participate in study trips and visits to design conferences and debates.
Project-based course
You choose your own project content and this is supported by lectures and seminars dealing with professional practice issues and reviewing your progress. You also take part in regular group and individual tutorials.
Your final major project is the culmination of your research and studio-based design practice. It demonstrates that you can deal with difficult contemporary questions and take a leading role as a design professional.
Research-led expertise
We are one of the oldest established art and design institutions in the UK, renowned for producing internationally recognised research. Your projects are supported by lecturers who are packaging design specialists.
Vibrant and supportive learning environment
During the course you regularly take part in constructive critical debates about your own work and that of your peers. You need to communicate your research, ideas and designs in ways that are appropriate to professional leadership.
You study alongside MA and MFA Design students for part of your course and benefit from a vibrant, international, collaborative and supportive postgraduate environment.
Excellent facilities and creative resources
You have access to a huge range of creative resources to experiment and engage with including • 3D printing for rapid prototyping • state-of-the-art hardware and software • photography studios • a creative media centre • a gallery • well-equipped workshops.
You also have access to our award-winning learning centre featuring a specialist art, design and media library and extensive online resources.
MA and MFA study
MA and MFA students complete the same modules during the course except that MFA students complete an extra project module. The MFA project encourages you to develop professional skills that help you to identify, instigate, and deliver projects with external partners, such as communities, galleries or businesses. You find a project partner, agree a brief and then deliver the project to a professional standard.
We are normally asked to shortlist applicants before recommending a small number to apply. If this happens, we consider your interview, portfolio of work, academic qualifications and learning aims. We aim to pick people whose abilities and aims are relevant for the company and who are most likely to be successful in a competitive interview.
This course is part of the Sheffield Institute of Arts (SIA), an amazing, diverse community of makers – where staff, students and partners work as equals to deliver real innovation and creativity. SIA opened in 1843 and is one of the UK's oldest Art and Design Schools. We have recently moved into the Head Post Office, a redesigned Grade II listed building. It includes state-of-the-art workshops which provide you with a unique studio-based learning environment in the heart of the creative community.
FULL-TIME
Semester one
• project 1 • theory supporting practice
Semester two
• project 2 • negotiated project
Semester three
• major project
Semester four – MFA students only
• MFA project
PART-TIME
Semester one (year 1)
• theory supporting practice • negotiated project
Semester two (year 2)
• project 1 • project 2
Semester three (year 3)
• major project
Semester four – MFA students only (year 4)
• MFA project
Assessment and feedback are vital parts of the learning process in creative disciplines. Most assessment is through individual project work which combines research and creative practice. Assessment calls for both excellent creative work and well-documented research.
Packaging is a huge worldwide industry with excellent job opportunities for talented people. At postgraduate level, packaging design presents you with a range of career opportunities including branding, advertising and product development where the ability to originate fresh thinking is paramount.
An increasing number of our design graduates are undertaking more advanced further study through research degrees (PhD) in our Art and Design Research Centre, which has a leading position in the advancement of creative practice in design. Working on a research degree in our Art and Design Research Centre provides the opportunity to become one of a team dedicated to the advancement of creative practice within packaging design.
Our MA Graphic Design course has been structured to promote the role of designers as skilled professional communicators, and firmly embed a culture of research and problem solving into creative practice.
Our course, taught at UCA Epsom, aims to promote specialism and mastery in your own unique area of graphic design - which you'll identify and develop with us on this MA. Enabling you to produce meaningful outcomes from informed research is a top priority.
Using the extensive industry links brought by our course staff, you'll be encouraged to foster connections with industry partners within your area of specialism. With the help of visiting lecturers, industry experts and live briefs, you'll gain real-life experience of the design industry. And emphasis will be placed on how to present both yourself and your design work in a professional arena.
The industry orientation of this course is concerned with exploring graphic design languages in all their facets. You'll enhance your understanding of the aesthetic and commercial value of your work, and accrue professional experience which will add innovation to your practice.
On this course you'll taught through a range of lectures, workshops, tutorials, live pitches and presentations. We also place a strong emphasis on independent research.
You'll benefit from well-established industry links with corporate, media, cultural and creative organisations.
Our course has links with:
-Design Bridge
-Pearlfisher (design group)
-FutureBrand
-The Brewery
-The BBC
-Imagine
-Bloom
-Interbrand
We also have regular guest lecturers and recent guests have included:
-Richard Williams - Founder of Williams Murray Hamm
-Tim Perkins - Group Director of Design Bridge
-Philip Carter - Founder of Carter Wong Tomlin
-Helen Healy - Picture Editor for the Guardian newspaper.
MA Graphic Design alumni go on to work in a diverse variety of exciting careers. Employment opportunities include:
-Graphic design
-Museum design
-Web or interactive design
-Picture editing
-Freelance design or illustration
-Brand design
-Packaging design
-Retail design
-Art direction
-Design management.
Visit our Postgraduate Virtual Media Space to find out more about our courses, see what it's like to study at UCA and gain access to our campus virtual tours.
Develop your existing knowledge and experience as a designer, exploiting our significant research expertise to enhance your own design and research skills to a new level.
We place emphasis on personal research, giving you the chance to develop your own interests and ideas in a challenging and supportive environment. Graphic design covers a wide and diverse field, so our aim is to help you to become a creative, imaginative and versatile designer who can operate independently or as a member of a design team.
You can work alongside our packaging design consultancy, Design Futures, and with researchers from other design areas. We also have contacts with leading design agencies and design organisations and encourage you to work collaboratively with them.
There are opportunities to participate in study trips and visits to design conferences and debates.
Project-based course
You choose your own project content and this is supported by lectures and seminars dealing with professional practice issues and reviewing your progress. You also take part in regular group and individual tutorials.
Your final major project is the culmination of your research and studio-based design practice. It demonstrates that you can deal with difficult contemporary questions and take a leading role as a design professional.
Research-led expertise
We are one of the oldest established art and design institutions in the UK, renowned for producing internationally recognised research. Your projects are supported by lecturers who are graphic design specialists.
Vibrant and supportive learning environment
During the course you regularly take part in constructive critical debates about your own work and that of your peers. You need to communicate your research, ideas and designs in ways that are appropriate to professional leadership.
You study alongside MA and MFA Design students for part of your course and benefit from a vibrant, international, collaborative and supportive postgraduate environment.
Excellent facilities and creative resources
You have access to a huge range of creative resources to experiment and engage with including • 3D printing for rapid prototyping • state-of-the-art hardware and software • photography studios • a creative media centre • a gallery • well-equipped workshops.
You also have access to our award-winning learning centre featuring a specialist art, design and media library and extensive online resources.
MA and MFA study
MA and MFA students complete the same modules during the course except that MFA students complete an extra project module. The MFA project encourages you to develop professional skills that help you to identify, instigate, and deliver projects with external partners, such as communities, galleries or businesses. You find a project partner, agree a brief and then deliver the project to a professional standard.
We are normally asked to shortlist applicants before recommending a small number to apply. If this happens, we consider your interview, portfolio of work, academic qualifications and learning aims. We aim to pick people whose abilities and aims are relevant for the company and who are most likely to be successful in a competitive interview.
This course is part of the Sheffield Institute of Arts (SIA), an amazing, diverse community of makers – where staff, students and partners work as equals to deliver real innovation and creativity. SIA opened in 1843 and is one of the UK's oldest Art and Design Schools. We have recently moved into the Head Post Office, a redesigned Grade II listed building. It includes state-of-the-art workshops which provide you with a unique studio-based learning environment in the heart of the creative community.
FULL-TIME STRUCTURE
Semester one
• project 1 • theory supporting practice
Semester two
• project 2 • negotiated project
Semester three
• major project
Semester four – MFA students only
• MFA project
PART-TIME STRUCTURE
Semester one (year 1)
• theory supporting practice • negotiated project
Semester two (year 2)
• project 1 • project 2
Semester three (year 3)
• major project
Semester four – MFA students only (year 4)
• MFA project
Assessment and feedback are vital parts of the learning process in creative disciplines. Most assessment is through individual project work which combines research and creative practice. Assessment calls for both excellent creative work and well-documented research.
There are many opportunities for employment or self-employment. We encourage you to take an enterprising approach and to strengthen your ability to develop your own business.
You can work in areas such as branding and advertising, where the ability to originate fresh thinking is essential.
An increasing number of our graduates undertake advanced further study through research degrees (PhD) in our Art and Design Research Centre, which has a leading position in the advancement of creative practice in design.
Sheffield is home to the largest concentration of creative production in the region. Support for creative industries in the city has encouraged home grown talent as well as practitioners relocating here.
This programme encourages students to take a risk, to test the boundaries of the discipline and push their design ideas beyond personally predetermined limits.
You will develop an enhanced research and design proposal, culminating in a new body of work that will showcase your development and achievements.
This unique and convention-breaking programme has a strong emphasis on personal creative freedom and design innovation, ensuring you have the best chance of employment and career development upon graduation.
You will be encouraged to challenge your existing research and design knowledge and develop new skills and networks. You are expected to experiment and explore: independent study is paramount but underpinned by a number of supporting projects, workshops and events.
We expect collaboration within the School of Design, with the creative industries and where appropriate with external clients to allow you to realise personal and project possibilities to the full. There is a strong international student input which introduces diverse experience and encourages wide-ranging thinking.
We encourage bold, lateral approaches, coupled with a clear understanding of process and technique, to produce innovative, emotive and enduring design from students who learn through intense, sustained involvement with the design process.
The curriculum is student-led with an emphasis on independent learning. With tutorial guidance, you will negotiate and develop a programme of study based on personal areas of research and practice, alongside set projects to support and inform your line of enquiry.
You will initially focus on the research and development of a study proposal. With support from our dynamic team of experienced tutors (all industry practitioners or researchers) you will be encouraged to expand on your preconceived ideas and let your findings dictate future development. We expect you to engage in sophisticated design dialogue to push your ideas to their full potential. There is a hotbed of debate and prototyping before any designs are taken into production.
The written context of the programme helps amplify and contextualise your understanding of process and this wider awareness of design feeds back into your practice-based work. You will produce written context assignments alongside studio based work.
We are committed to providing our students with enhanced career prospects and the ability to achieve at the highest level. Graduates are professionally vital and well-informed, and are able to enter the design industry with a freshness of approach and the flexibility and adaptability to be able to respond to change.
Our Graphic Design 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. Typically though 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, exhibition design, design research, marketing, retail design, exhibition design, multimedia, design management, education. Graduates may freelance or seek employment within a company.
A specific scheme we run within the programme is the Design Agency project which, in 2013, won a Guardian University Award for Employability Initiative.
Design Agency is a flagship initiative that enables graphic design students to form their own design agencies. They create their own brand for the agency and work collectively towards a common objective based on ability, regardless of age or experience. Edinburgh-based design agencies act as ‘mentor partners’ to the student agencies. The long-term relationships that are built with mentors ensures that students have the chance to show, over an extended period rather than just a few weeks on placement, what they can contribute to potential employers.
In 2013, the ECA Design Agency won the Guardian University Awards 2013 prize for Employability Initiative, with the judges praising its ambition and said its risk-taking innovation “should be applauded.”
The Master of Food and Packaging Innovation is an inter-disciplinary degree that explores food processing, entrepreneurship and innovation in product and packaging design at an advanced level.
Over the next 40 years, the world will need to produce 50% more food to feed a rapidly increasing world population.
As a graduate of the Master of Food and Packaging Innovation, you will be part of addressing this demand. You will learn the skills necessary to develop valuable and innovative food products that address key issues such as transportability, durability, tamper proofing and perishability issues, as well as key environmental, economic, social and ethical factors.
This unique course forms part of a joint University of Melbourne and The Mondelēz International initiative, with the support of the Victorian Government. Industry is actively involved in this course, because they want to cultivate the skills they require locally.
Students can choose to undertake an internship as part of the Master of Food and Packaging Innovation includes an internship subject. This unique placement opportunity, provides access to some of Australia’s most well-known brands and state-of- the-art facilities.
The placement may include access to leading manufacturing sites in packaging and innovation with company's such as Mondelez Australia.
Graduates in the Master of Graphic Design may work in the areas of editorial design, packaging, typography, information design, generic design for television or cinema, illustration, art direction, branding, multimedia design and production of graphic design. In the advertising industry can be a creative pairs, for print advertising or television.
In the audiovisual industry, these skills can also be applied in the conduct of generic or other products where typography is applied. The teaching profession is also a professional output as well as academic research in the area of graphic design.
The Masters in Graphic Design ESAD.CR aims to provide students with the conceptual and practical skills of a high professional level in specific areas of graphic design and communication for multiple platforms, which feature contemporary visual culture.
The Master of Graphic Design ESAD.CR focuses on preparing students with a set of theoretical and practical studies in contemporary graphic design, typography applied, graphic design for contemporary means of communication and branding. Courses are complemented by seminars and research methodologies that explore the communication design conceptually and operationally, approaching simultaneously experimental and professional dimensions. The last two semesters focus on the preparation of sustained practical design work that could be replaced by an internship.
All information related to the international student application should be consulted on our International Students webpage.
Study for your MPhil at Sheffield Hallam’s Cultural, Communication and Computing Research Institute (C3RI). C3RI an inspiringly diverse multidisciplinary group which makes connections between the research traditions of
The Institute consists of two research centres
We provide an environment in which each discipline can develop its own approach to research. At the same time we bring people together on questions that cut across traditional subject boundaries.
Research activity at C3RI
Our work covers strategic and applied research as well as covering research into teaching and learning. Much of it is through partnerships with businesses and professional collaborators.
Research is supported by research councils, the European Union, commercial clients, charitable bodies and government.
We support a PhD research programme with over 80 students. We also maintain many knowledge transfer partnerships that support close collaboration between academics, researchers and industrial partners.
Design Futures
C3RI also houses Design Futures, a commercially-focused product and packaging design consultancy group based within Sheffield Hallam University.
Design Futures has had specialist design teams working exclusively on commercial consultancy services for several years. These teams have developed award winning, innovative solutions for many clients, some of which have been patented.
MPhil – two years full-time, or three years part-time
Start dates – September, January or May.
Candidates are required to critically investigate and evaluate an approved topic, to demonstrate an understanding of research methods appropriate to their chosen field and to present and defend a thesis by oral examination.
Supervision
Each student is allocated a director of studies and a supervisor. Regular meetings between the student and supervisors are scheduled, with targets set for written and oral presentation of research progress.
Research training
Some students may be required to complete research training modules if not already studied as part of a masters degree. This can have fee implications for part-time students, but is included in the full-time fee.
Additional training sessions to benefit doctoral students will be arranged and advertised to students, by the Faculty and the central Doctoral School, throughout the year at no additional cost.
Training is followed by, or delivered in conjunction with, theoretical and textual research, analysis and writing, working closely with the supervisors. Students are expected to present seminar papers on their work and to submit written papers for comment. Students will also be expected to attend relevant seminars and presentations from the research seminar series and other doctoral students.
Thesis followed by oral examination
Research degrees are a vital qualification for most academic careers and for professional specialisation within an existing or planned career. The rigorous analytical thinking they involve is also an attractive feature for potential employers of all kinds.
Help Engineer the future with Loughborough University’s School of Aeronautical, Automotive, Chemical and Materials Engineering
Edinburgh College of Art: Postgrad study in Art, Design, Architecture, Music, History of Art
