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. If you’re also considering our Illustration degree, you can explore both and easily swap between the two in the first three months. 

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 of continuing on a pure Graphic Design pathway or switching to our Graphic Design: Advertising and Branding degree. 

Your second year is a dynamic mixture of personal experimentation, balanced with a more professional focus. Regular sessions encourage you to develop your own visual style; whilst workshops teach more advanced software skills as well as a variety of printing techniques, collaborations with the other pathways and an international study trip. The year is also about working on live briefs with some of the world’s highest profile design agencies and developing your portfolio and building a CV. 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. 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 ISTD awards. So, join our community and turn your creativity into a career you love. Who knows? Maybe you’ll be next. 

Work placement

Graduate with invaluable work experience alongside your degree and stand out from the crowd.  

This course offers you the opportunity to enhance your study and CV with a work placement sandwich year. It’s a chance to explore career possibilities, make valuable contacts and gain sought after professional skills.  

Our dedicated Careers and Employment team are here to help guide you through the process.

If you take up a work placement between your second and third year of study, at the University of Hertfordshire you’ll pay no tuition fee for this year. We’ll ask you to make your decision in your second year, so there is plenty of time to think about it. 

What's next for my career?

Our graphic design courses send you out into the world with a cracking portfolio and a crate-load of practical industry skills. It’s no wonder our graduates have a great track record for landing sought-after graphic design jobs in some of the UK’s most high-profile agencies including Superunion, Moving Brands and Taxi Studio. 

They’re snapped up as advertising creatives, branding specialists, motion designers, editorial creatives, graphic designers and art directors. Some even set up their own businesses, come back to us later as design teachers or become studio managers.  

Recent graduates are working at some of the most highly regarded design businesses in the UK and internationally. The course can lead to a wide range of career opportunities in design and illustration; particularly in the fields of branding, advertising, interaction, motion graphics, editorial design and art direction. Our graduates have also gone on to set up their own businesses or persued careers as studio managers, teachers, photographers and printmakers.