MA Graphic Communication Design

MA Graphic Communication Design at Central Saint Martins is a course distinguished by its pursuit of a critically engaged and rigorous practice that integrates graphic communication design and traditional academic research. An important aim of the course is to facilitate the formation of communities around a dynamic and evolving subject field. We recognize that our challenge—and opportunity—is to engage students and staff collaboratively and inclusively in the continual co-creation of our subject field, together interrogating existing forms of knowledge as well as shaping new forms.

Course structure
The course is delivered over two three-term academic years.

Unit one: Graphic Communication Design as Research
Explore ways of thinking and making that position graphic communication design as an open-ended, systematic, and critical research method by responding to a variety of tutor-led and self-initiated briefs.

Unit two: Situated Practice in Graphic Communication Design
Identify and articulate your own position in relation to existing knowledge, using graphic communication design to frame a specific open-ended question that you explore through writing and through rigorous, systematic studio practice.

Unit three: Graphic Communication Design Project
Critically interrogate the means of production and deploy formal skills to expand and deepen your ongoing research, engage audiences and publics in your work, and lay the foundation for an iterative practice that extends beyond the course.

More detailed information about the course structure is available here.

Open days
We run a series of online open day presentations throughout the application period. Check the course website for upcoming dates and times.

Application
Applicants are welcome from within the fields of graphic and communication design, as well as from other academic backgrounds (humanities, social sciences, engineering, etc.).

Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the course is full, with a deadline for equal consideration of May 15, 2021. We recommend applying early. Your application will only be considered after you have successfully completed an online application, submitted the required documents, and uploaded a digital portfolio.

A note to applicants from the US: University of the Arts London participates in US federal student aid programs, so US applicants may be eligible for federal loans to help cover the cost of study.

Start date: September 2021
Course length: 2 years extended full-time (60 weeks)

Devised in collaboration with students, extended full-time is a study mode which sits between full-time and part-time. It allows students to maintain a balance between the competing demands of contemporary life and the pace of postgraduate study in an arts and design college.

Depth of Field 2020–21
A public series of events organized by the Graphic Communication Design programme considers questions of the most urgent relevance to education and industry in graphic communication design, placing them into social, environmental and historical contexts. How should graphic and communication designers interact with the dominance of the tech sector, particularly as this is intensified through the pandemic? What can graphic design do to make a step-change against racism and coloniality that has a meaningful long-term impact? How is the environmental crisis a crisis of communication?

The event schedule, links to join upcoming events, and recordings of past events are all available here.