Graphic Design

Discover the skills and creative thinking behind powerful visual communication. Develop your design practice while exploring the cultural impact of graphic design and experimenting with materials, processes, and technologies. You’ll learn to respond confidently to client briefs, take projects from ideation to execution, and present professional design solutions, preparing you for a creative career with a BA in Graphic Design at Keele.

Why choose this course?

• Build your confidence with creative tools to devise visual communications to a professional standard

• Learn how graphic designers can tackle stereotypes, address social injustices and promote good causes through design

• Engage with placement opportunities to apply your learning in the 'real-world'

• Study abroad at a partner university across the globe

• Top 15 in the UK for Graduate Employability (Uni Compare rankings, 2026)

Join a hands-on BA in Graphic Design to develop creative and technical skills to produce compelling design work to a professional standard, for a range of different platforms. Learn how to respond to briefs, work collaboratively with others, and refine your design approach for different audiences. Your practice will be informed by critical judgement and an awareness of the social and cultural importance of graphic design and how this can shape attitudes and behaviours amongst various audiences.

In your first year, you will focus on the core principles of graphic design, developing your skills in ideation and experimentation as well as your confidence with tools to create compelling visual communications. You will engage with key hardware and software, including Adobe Creative Cloud, high definition cameras, and digital printers. You'll begin to think about the messaging behind your design work and challenge contemporary issues such as negative stereotypes and social injustices.

Your second year will enable you to build your unique style further through experimenting with different tools, techniques and formats. This might include photography, creative uses of AI, and designing graphic novels and comics, developing your skills for industry-standard graphic design work including working with others effectively and managing projects.

Your third year will involve the creation of an 'Extended Graphic Design Project' which will bring together your skills and knowledge gained throughout the programme. You will explore user experience and interactive design to test and refine your work, as well as exploring audiences and ethical approaches. You will graduate with a portfolio of original designs, including work negotiated with clients, preparing you for life after university.

At Keele, we offer interdisciplinary learning, enabling you to build a skill set applicable to a range of careers within the creative industries. You will have access to facilities, resources and support from staff within the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. As a creative practitioner, you will learn to showcase your individuality through the use of hardware, software and equipment available.

About Keele

Keele University was established in 1949 by the former Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University. Founded to meet the needs of a changing world, Keele has always had a pioneering vision to be a different kind of university.

We excel in both teaching and research, with some of the most satisfied students in England, and research that is changing lives for the better at a regional, national and global level.

Our beautiful 600-acre campus is one of the biggest in Britain – but all the most important services and facilities are on your doorstep, with accommodation, teaching spaces, facilities including a medical centre, sports centre and pharmacy, and a range of shops, eateries and entertainment venues – including the Students’ Union – clustered around the centre.

Course Modules

For a list of indicative modules please visit the course page on the Keele University website.