COURTESY  :  www.herts.ac.uk

Design and branding

Creativity, collaboration, tech and big ideas. If you think you want to work in advertising or branding, but you love graphic design, this could be the course for you. Design is the (not-so) secret weapon behind every innovative brand, beautiful magazine, eye-popping piece of print and jaw-dropping digital interface. Learn its secrets and carve out an influential career working with the biggest firms or apply your talents to make a positive impact on the world around you. This pathway lets you focus on the specialist skills you’ll need to work in the industry, learn the latest software and make lifelong friendships with like-minded creatives. 

The teaching team have worked at the top end of the design, advertising and branding industry and now want to pass on their knowledge, expertise and connections to the next generation of creatives. In recent years, our students have worked on live briefs with the likes of Lacoste, Sky, Mini and collaborated with students from Yale University is the US on a brief set by Prada. We’ve also partnered with some of the world’s leading creative agencies including Droga5 and DesignStudio (the designers of the Premier League, Airbnb and Deliveroo branding). 

It’s a powerful mix of freedom, inspiration and support that prepares you for an incredible career. In fact, it’s earned our students over 100 major awards in recent years, including at least one D&AD pencil every year since 2011. So, join our community and turn your creativity into a career you love. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be next.  

What are the facilities like? 

Amazing. Learn in our vibrant, dedicated studio spaces and Mac labs. Do your research in our 24/7 library. Use our professional-quality photography, TV and motion capture studios. And borrow all the tech you need to create mind-blowing work.  

What’s the course about?

Teaching is mainly project-based, supported by skills-based workshops. You’ll tackle a huge variety of briefs ranging in complexity and time scales. We encourage a competitive, demanding yet light-hearted atmosphere and pride ourselves on providing a lot of direct contact between staff and students. We also organise an annual international study trip, as well as visits to agencies, museums and galleries in London. 

You’ll spend your first year immersed in our studio, getting a solid grounding in print and digital projects, working alongside our Illustration students. You’ll be constantly challenged, supported and encouraged as you learn technical skills, experiment, take risks and push new boundaries.  

You’ll begin by learning the understated power of typography, logo design, brand identity and layout – fundamentals that will underpin your craft, whatever direction you take. With them under your belt, at the end of the year you’ll have the option to continuing with Graphic Design: Advertising and Branding or switching to the regular Graphic Design pathway. 

In your second year, you’ll take more of a professional focus, working on live briefs, developing your portfolio and building a CV. You’ll learn about art direction, copywriting, campaign development, brand strategy and how to design dynamic visual identities. Fancy exploring motion graphics in more depth? Want to build your online presence? We’ve got you. 

There’s the chance to explore everything today’s tech has to offer, crafting your website, building your social media profile and creating a unique narrative that shows top design employers what an amazing designer you are. You’ll learn how to approach agencies and visit studios. Throughout the course we’ll help you to investigate, understand and critique the history of the subject, the theories behind what’s happening in contemporary design as well as looking into future trends.  

Work placement/study abroad option: Between your second and final year, you’ll have the option to study abroad or do a work placement for up to a year. Not only will this give you an amazing experience to talk about but will also give your CV a boost. If you’d rather go straight to your final year, that’s absolutely fine too.  

By the time you start your final year, you’ll have a solid understanding of design and the specialisms that fire your imagination. You’ll pick from a huge range of creative projects, workshops and live briefs as well as developing your own self-directed projects — building a completely personal, standout portfolio. We’ll encourage original thinking, but we’ll also give you tons of support, inspiration and encouragement.     

And we won’t be the only ones. Throughout your course, we’ll invite amazing designers to lead workshops, set projects and become your mentors. Our proximity to London means it’s easy for us to invite people doing the most innovative and exciting work with us.   

It’s a powerful mix of freedom, inspiration and support that prepares you for an incredible career. In fact, in recent years it’s earned our students award wins in all the most coveted competitions including D&AD yellow pencils, Creative Conscience Gold medals and YCN awards. So, join our community and turn your creativity into a career you love. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be next.

Your main campus is College Lane 

This is where the creative arts, science and health-related subjects are based. This means you’ll share the campus with future nurses, scientists, artists and more. You can use the common rooms to relax with friends, work out in the 24-hour gym or have a drink in our on-campus pub or cafes. We also have restaurants for you to eat in or grab something on the go. Our Learning Resources Centres are open 24/7, which means you can study whenever suits you best. Want to pop over to the other campus? You can take the free shuttle bus or walk there in just 15 minutes.   

What will I study?

Degree programmes are structured into levels, 4, 5 and 6.  These correspond to your first, second and third/final year of study.  Below you can see what modules you’ll be studying in each.