Course Objectives

Students will:

• Gain experience and knowledge of methods for developing and working with ideas.
• Acquire essential basic knowledge of form, colour and composition.
• Acquire knowledge of simplification and stylisation in relation to visual communication.
• Understand and apply important tools in which text and illustration are combined to achieve effective communication.
• Be able to use the latest software to visualize solutions.
• Develop the ability to evaluate their own and others’ solutions in graphic design work.

Course Description

The course emphasizes the acquisition of knowledge and skills through training using the relevant digital software, typography, principles of composition and layout. This will provide a basis for understanding the graphic designer’s role as a creator of visual communication. The practical assignments may involve printed or digital media.

Learning Methods

The course is characterised by an interaction between theory and practical work in materials. Students will develop their ability to make decisions and defend professional practices. The course includes lectures, demonstrations, seminars, study groups, project work and visual presentations. It also includes attendance at exhibitions and other cultural activities.

Large parts of the course require obligatory attendance; information is given in the year-plan/semester plan/period plans.

Students will be responsible for their own learning. This means that each student must keep themselves updated with respect to the syllabus literature and seek professional guidance. The acquisition of knowledge will, to a large degree, depend upon supervision of the learning processes and learning through action. Attendance and participation in an active, creative workshop environment is a fundamental and vital condition for gaining maximum benefit from the course.

Portfolio assignments

The course is organised through portfolio assignments designed by the teaching team. Each assignment includes specific learning objectives which correspond with the content of a particular course unit and specific area. The portfolio assignments reflect the course’s expectations in terms of active and consistent student participation throughout the academic year. These assignments will also reveal the structure of the course and the students’ progress. The assignments, which will be specified early in the course, are intended to build basic skills that will provide the qualifications necessary for solving increasingly more complex problems.

Through working on the portfolio assignments, students will receive guidance and feedback on the work they produce, exhibitions and presentations, sketches, their studies and written commentaries. The portfolios will document the students’ progress, results and thoughts through written and practical work, thereby gradually building up awareness and understanding of their own developmental and learning processes in this field of study.

Assessment Methods

Students will submit their portfolio assignment before the deadline; the portfolio will include products, presentations of products, process description and their reflection on teaching practice. The course will be assessed on a pass / fail basis.

Please refer to Telemark University College’s examination regulations for more information.

Minor adjustments may occur during the academic year, subject to the decision of the Dean