Tony Pritchard

Origin Stories

Introduction

The Design or Visual Communication (DVC) courses were first validated in 2004. The then Dean Mike Bradshaw had identified a gap for such courses to accommodate the needs of mature life-long learners. Participants on the short courses desired a progression route that had a more meaningful qualification attached. The MA in Graphic Design were receiving applications from people with unusual personal, professional and academic backgrounds. These students were postgraduate in other subjects and required a bridging course that provided an education in fundamental principles of design; historical and subject context; and visual research methods. The courses began first as Graduate Certificates and Diplomas. These were described as undergraduate in level but postgraduate in duration.

Anna Harrison, 2019

Nathalie Shores, 2019

Course influences

I began my teaching at London College of Communication (formerly Printing) circa 1988 on the renowned Media and Production Design (MPD) course. The course strengths were in typography and information design. Graduates included Helen Keyes (Philips), Robin Richmond (Meta), Hans Dieter Reichert (Baseline), Jason Kedgley (Tomato) and the founders of OPX. The course, originally proposed by FHK Henrion, was a four year sandwich course which included a year out in industry. Influential tutors Brian Grimbley, Anthony Froshaug and Leslie Howard taught on the course. MPD eventually merged with BA Graphic Design and formed the Graphic and Media Design (GMD) course. The M was retained from MPD and the G from Graphic Design.

Myself and Martin Ashley led the Information Design pathway of the course. DVC tutor June Mineyama-Smithson was a student of Martin and mine. The learning and teaching on these courses informed the development of the DVC course. Another influential course at the time was the HND Typographic Design course ran by Dave Dabner with tutors Colin Maugham, Geoff White, Eugenie Dodd and Benedict Richards. The Information Design pathway would collaborate with the HND course on the International Society of Typographic Designers’ Student Assessment. It was Dave Dabner that involved me in the ISTD. The history and ethos of the London College of Printing (Fred Lambert, Robin Fior, David King, Richard Hollis and Ian McLaren) as an influence on the course can’t be overstated.

The history of DVC is the embodiment of the history of the LCP. The early pioneers who taught and were students at the post-war Central School of Arts and Crafts formed the curriculum that we see in evidence today. These included Herbert Spencer, Victor Pasmore, Geoff White, Ken Garland and Derek Birdsall. Anthony Froshaug taught a version of the typographic hierarchy exercise that students on the DVC course experience. Derek Birdsall taught what he learned from Froshaug. Geoff White exported this through his influential teaching at Ravensbourne College of Art and Design. In a sense there is a continuum with the baton being handed on. An awareness of continental European schools such as at Basel and Ulm exerted an impact on the curriculum development. The work of 8vo and the journal Octavo helped guide the course direction as did Eye magazine. The course was not shy of its connection with the related profession as progression to industry was one of the course aims. The course developed relationships through graduate progression with consultancies such as Pentagram, Browns and Sea Design.

Sonia Malik 2006

Application process and applicant profile

Application requirements were an undergraduate degree, portfolio and interview. It became clear that the statement of intent was critical – why did the applicant wish to study on the course and what did they hope to achieve? One example was the speech therapist who wanted to study on the course because they identified that the design of materials aiding those recovering from brain injury were poor and she thought they could be improved. Some applicants hadn’t followed a traditional academic path for example two professional athletes. In these cases the Accreditation of Prior or Experiential Learning (APEL) was required to demonstrate an equivalent level of learning through life experiences. This became a common occurrence on these courses.

Part-time and full-time modes

The course ran in part-time certificate mode for the first year. A target of ten students was set. The recruitment period and limited marketing provided a challenge but the target was met. Due to work commitments two of the first cohort had to withdraw. The decision was made to run the course as a loss leader such was the faith in its purpose. Over the next couple of years the course grew in popularity and was achieving cohorts of twenty-five. The first full-time Diploma started in the third year of 2006. This recruited well immediately and helped the college achieve its overall International target. At its height the course was recruiting 40 applicants.

Personal, professional and academic ambitions

People joined the course for numerous reasons including for personal, professional and academic development. Many of the applicants wished to convert career or up-skill to become graphic designers. They desired validation from the course of their skills, academic abilities and conceptual strengths. These graduates went on to work at high profile agencies such as Pentagram, Browns, Bibliothéque, Information is Beautiful and Sea Design. Others worked for notable institutions such as the BBC and The Guardian. Some established their own successful freelance practices such as Margot Lombaert, Sthuthi Ramesh, Susanna Foppoli and Sateen Panagiotopoulou.

Venetia Thorneycroft, 2011

Will Humphrey, 2008

An excellent relationship developed between the postgraduate courses accepting graduates for Masters study. Many graduates achieved higher grades such as distinctions. The course achieved success with some applicants being accepted onto external Masters such as the Royal College of Art.

Another strand of course participant were those wishing to acquire visual communication skills to take back into their existing professional or academic career such as Professor Amanda Perry-Kessaris from the Kent Law School, University of Kent. ‘A key question running through Amanda’s current research is: What might law and design do for each other?’. Cat Drew was a Home Office Policy adviser on entry to the course. She has subsequently become the Chief Design Officer for the Design Council ‘where she champions Design for Planet’.

Henrietta Ross, Ian Carr and Kam Rehal having graduated and achieved success in the professional environment returned to academia to take on course and programme leader roles.

The curriculum

When a course is validated a handbook is produced which outlines the aims and objectives of the course; the units; learning outcomes and assessment criteria amongst other information. This becomes an agreement between the institution and the student about what will be delivered. The units will include indicative content. A course is validated for four years and as such requires some degree of generality and flexibility to develop over that period. The units contained workshops and set projects around the themes of research methods; design application; professional and academic contexts; electives; and a major self-initiated project. Over time, through staff and student input, the course developed its curriculum. This was not set from the out-start, it evolved naturally through experimentation and trial and error. In the formative years staff included Tory Dunn (creative thinking); Teal Triggs (politics and design); Darren Raven (narrative transitions); Geoff White (visual language and typography); and Geoff Haddon (reductive drawing).

Tom Hornby, 2012

Fundamental universal principles

Tim Molloy, who was Head of Creative Direction at the Science Museum, commented that the course was like a foundation for postgraduate study. Russell Bestley thought of it as an unofficial year one for a Masters. The notion of fundamental universal principles emerged. The first two units would share these common concepts. One unit dealt with the research element and the other the developed output from the research. Henrietta Ross suggested that one could consider the idea of the iceberg, the research (the larger part) lay beneath the surface and the small tip was the resultant output. Susannah Rees maintained that the research should lead rather than be backtracked from a presumed output, and developed the course mantra of ‘document, experiment, evaluate and contextualise’. Ben Richards offered that students should ask what? so what? what next? This takes confidence from the student, when you start a project you can’t see a defined output. ‘Research is the process of going up alleys to see if they’re blind’ there is some conjecture who this quote should be attributed to, many think it is zoologist Marston Bates. Tory Dunn suggested that the outcome was the ongoing monitored impact that came later.

Purposeful and applied research became a strength of the course whist being also open to the unknown and unexpected. An example of this type of research was Rajlaxmi Jain’s ‘One Mindful Mind’ that focused on a visual toolkit to aid the positive development of child psychology. This was later adopted by India’s health authorities. Visual experimentation was also encouraged through features such as ‘The Secret Envelope’ where there was a series of starting points with no defined output. The fundamental principles included: type classification; typographic hierarchy; visual language (form and colour); and structure. This would culminate in the consideration of information design and in a sense brought the elements together. Underlying the seeming complexity lay an understanding of principles which had a simplicity at its heart. The fundamental principles were delivered in term one. Students could explore the themes in individual ways and realise their outputs through set flexible options. Once grasped the individual was empowered to take independent steps in their research and completed resolutions. This first manifest itself through unit 3 Professional and Academic Contexts. Students would collaborate with visiting lecturers and determine the resolved piece as the editor-in-chief controlling all the components.

Nora Zhao, 2018

Workshops

Much undergraduate teaching in the past began with setting a project that would last a term. The student would be expected to engage with activity during the week. The following week there would be a round table discussion to check on progress with interim group critiques added later. It was noted that often students would struggle on a weekly basis with much discussions as to why there had been little progress. This might be a creative block or imagining there would be a eureka moment when the lightening would strike and the solution would arrive form nowhere.

The Design for Visual Communication course took a different approach. This was partly due to the idea that an individual tutor could not sustain a day of talking. It was thought best to have an activity as the taught session and then students could develop this through the week. They start with something to develop rather than be left on their own quizzical. These activities would be hands-on and low/no-tech. They were often rewarding in their own right. One example exploring the idea of the grid would be to fold an A2 sheet in four and open this up again. The resultant lines would be used to align prepared material – one word ‘grid’ and three quotes about the grid. Each person worked individually. Then the posters were put up together. This was when the ‘a-ha!’ moment came. The alignments of the folds would all line up creating a unified group effort. This was learning together through practical making. There were many moments when visualising the learning in this way through physical activity helped to internalise understanding.

Spun Inthawong, 2017

Dimitra Tzanos, 2006

Equivalent Level Qualifications

In 2009/10 the UK government introduced the Equivalent Level Qualifications (ELQ) policy. This meant that students wouldn’t be funded to study at the same level again, for example a second undergraduate degree. Graduate Certificates and Diplomas were set at level six, which is the final year of an undergraduate degree. If anyone had studied a degree they wouldn’t be funded for this level again. They could still study at the level but they would pay a higher fee. This clearly threatened the survival of the qualification’s existence. It was decided to revalidate the Design for Visual Communication courses as Postgraduate Certificates and Diplomas. It was thought that there was enough evidence in the student work to verify this was the correct level for the course.

Course publications

When I began teaching at LCC in 1988 I saw a Central School of Arts and Crafts prospectus on the shelves of the MPD office. It was designed by Anthony Froshaug. I was struck how people, events and time can be documented through a publication. This was the inspiration behind documenting the course between 2012-2019 through publications. The HND Typographic Design course produced a publication each year called Point. The course lasted eighteen years and the last publication was 18 point. The DVC publications were largely produced in-house through Tony Yard, Scott House, Rahel Zoller, Marta Dos Santos, Alexander Cooper and Christian Granados working with students. The publication included articles and features as well as representing the cohort’s efforts for that year. In 2024 the UAL Archives and Special Collections took the publications into the archive as they represent a significant period within the college history.

Aastha Mehta, 2019

Final reflection

The connection between practice (personal and commercial) and academia and how one influences the other became strongly rooted in my mind. I see this as fitting due to the nature of the course and the ambitions of the student profile. Graduate Amanda Aspeborg commented “I really liked the fact that we were treated as professional designers from the very beginning. Our tutor took it seriously, which meant that the rest of us followed suit. However, there was still a great freedom to explore, and we were pushed to do the best we could in a very encouraging environment”.

The course attitude resonated with many high profile agencies such as Pentagram, Sea Design and Browns who have employed graduates over the years. Swiss design educator Wolfgang Weingart spoke of aiding students to become their own teachers. In many ways we are both learners and teachers within a continuum. There are practical aspects to what can be taught and learnt and these can be delivered relatively quickly within the first term.

Learning can manifest itself in beautifully crafted projects but it is equally apparent as an attitude in how a student labels their work or presents a written reflection or packages their research. Humans have always made signs, symbols and marks. In ‘Graphic Design: A Concise History’, Richard Hollis writes “The primary role of graphic design is that of identification: to say what something is, or where it came from”.

This sense of a universal visual language is prevalent across cultures through colour and pattern-making in textiles, flags or Alhambra. There is hope that visual expression can do more to unite us than divides us. Design is the visible manifestation of who we are and what we want to contribute. The course has attracted students from around the world – from Canada to Russia and all the countries in between. The DVC family is global and embraces its international context. It is hoped that what DVC has taught will make a positive impact on the lives of those who have studied on the course and the lives that graduates touch in the future.

Emilia Kalyvides, 2019