Author: James Lloyd

NSS Results 2024

The Office for Students has published this year’s NSS results, and it’s been another great year for our BA Graphic Communication course.

Across the seven groups of questions, our scores are up on five of them (Learning opportunities, Assessment and feedback, Academic support, Organisation and management, Learning resources). In particular, Learning resources has jumped up by more than 13%. Even those that have dropped off (Teaching on my course and Student Voice) are only down by a small amount (1.5% and 0.6%) from already high positions.

The results continue a general positive trend for us over the past four or five years. This year’s increases are particularly driven by our ongoing investment in new technology for printing and crafting (including new laser printers, laser cutters and other finishing equipment), but also reflect the continuing commitment of staff to engage with student needs and identify ways to make our course more accessible, diverse and engaging for everyone.

You can see more stats and rankings information about our unique Graphic Communication progamme on Discover Uni.

 

Table showing 90+% ‘Positive’ scores across all NSS question groups. This places us near the top of the list of Departments both across our University and across the design school sector, too.

Think Rethink – our graduate degree show – REGISTER NOW!

I wanted to take a moment, in the calm before the storm, to thank our wonderful team of Part 3 students working hard to deliver our degree show on Thursday 17 June.

This is our first year hosting our show online, and the students are learning new skills on the fly in an incredibly fast-moving field. The event is completely student-led, from the branding through to the final delivery. Reading has always had great strength in allowing students to experience a range of real world professional experiences as part of their studies, and for degree show team this is more true than ever.

If you haven’t already registered for the show, you can do so at thinkrethink.design, or directly via this link.

The show is traditionally a time when new graduates, employers, parents, alumni, staff and younger students come together to celebrate not only the graduating class, but everything that the Department represents. Looking at the list of registered attendees, it seems we will keep that atmosphere going in the switch to online. I’m looking forward to seeing so many people from our community on the night.

So well done to Alex Ganczarski, Caitlin Wilson, Rory Tellam, Edoardo Sarli, Matt Dawson and Darcie Richmond. Your work for your peers, and for the wider Reading Typography community is greatly appreciated. The design work looks wonderful, the attention to detail is fantastic, and your dedication to making an impact on the future careers of all your friends has been inspiring.

Roll on Thursday!

 

 

Real Jobs: Celebrating over five decades of professional design practice on our undergraduate course

Alongside our degree show opening last week, we also launched a new exhibition celebrating our ‘Real Jobs’ scheme.

Real Jobs has been our flagship professional experience programme for as long as Typography has existed as a department. It allows our students their first taste of working alongside clients to co-create, and deliver on, a design brief. Our graduates regularly tell us that their experiences on these projects exposed them to unique and powerful moments that helped them secure their first paid positions, and continue to inform their professional practice today.

Standout projects on display include the Tomos Jones’ recent gold medal-winning University display at the Chelsea Flower Show and Maddi Davies’ collaborative project on Margaret Atwood, Second Sight. But a full range of work is on show, everything from books to branding, and we hope it is a fitting tribute to the students, staff and clients who have contributed to making Real Jobs such a successful part of the curriculum here in Typography.

The exhibition runs until 28 June. If you’ve ever been a client of Real Jobs, or if you’d like to know more about how the scheme could help your project or organisation, please do stop by to enjoy this celebration of five decades of students’ first steps into the world of professional graphic design.

To see our archive of recent Real Jobs, click here. If you think you have a project that would benefit from student design support you can also book in your own project here.

“I believe this is a great scheme, both supporting students with real life projects and work experience and also providing great value to small companies in need of professional design support” – Sirin Myles, International Education Consultant

“The Real Jobs scheme is an excellent way for students to get experience working towards a brief and is a great way to help everyone involved gain experience that will be useful when transitioning into a working environment. I will be recommending the scheme to my employer as I believe it provides unique opportunities for all involved.” – Isabel Cash, Holland House Books

A selection of projects led by current students, including: animations, branding for charities and voluntary organisations, art catalogues and hockey stick graphics.

 

Production processes ranges from letter press posters to the latest digital printing techniques.

 

The exhibition includes (almost) every Typography degree show invitation ever produced, shown together in chronological order.

 

 

—brace the space: Typography degree show 2019

We’d like to thank everyone who attended the private view of our degree show on Thursday evening. Our graduating class of BA Graphic Communication and MA Book Design students hosted a fantastic event which showcased not only their outstanding design work, but also their truly exemplary sense of teamwork and studio culture. Every aspect of the show – from promotion through to signage – is led by the students, and this year’s huge attendance and impressive co-ordination is testament to their efforts.

We’ll publish photos of the standout work on our flickr site shortly, and the student-run instagram is likely to fill up with more content soon. Meanwhile, if you’d like to see some of the work right away (including projects that won our coveted annual examiners awards), please do head over to the Department and ’embrace the space’ to enjoy the public view between Monday 17 and Saturday 22 June. The show covers everything from cutting edge UX to traditional book crafts, and there is an especially strong sense of experimentation and individuality this year.

For more information, visit https://embracethe.space

Undergraduate work by June Lin and Siu Yen Lo, including the award-winning ‘Second Sight’ book, produced in collaboration with students in English Literature.