Visual Communication

John Maillard, Digital design tutor with Jessica Riley, Bachelor of Design student

John Maillard, Digital design tutor with Jessica Riley, Bachelor of Design student.

What will I do on the Visual Communciations course?

As a CPIT Visual Communications student, you'll learn practical skills and professional attitudes required for success in a design career.

You'll begin in your first year with studies that are largely tutor-directed, but by your third year, you'll be working independently. As your studies progress, you'll undertake increasingly complex projects. These will challenge you to initiate, develop and complete creative and innovative solutions to functional and aesthetic problems.

In the second and third years you can choose to focus your studies on one of a number of related subjects in order to achieve your own career or study aims:

  • Time Based Focus: 2D and 3D animation, using both digital and traditional media
  • Image Making Focus: printmaking, illustration and photography
  • Graphics Focus: graphics, digital design, advertising design and related fields
  • 3D Focus: sculpture, furniture design, model making, set & exhibition design

Subjects

Leanne Molloy - Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications)

Leanne Molloy,
Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications), 2004.

Compulsory Courses

As a CPIT Bachelor of Design student, no matter what your chosen specialisation, you'll study these fundamental disciplines:

  • Drawing
  • 2D
  • 3D
  • History
  • Digital

These subjects provide a platform for the rest of your study and are all compulsory courses in your first year. Some continue to be compulsory throughout your three years of study, while others become optional depending on your chosen focus.

Emma Low - Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications)

Emma Low
Bachelor of Design (Visual Communications), 2004

 

Elective Courses

In conjunction with the compulsory courses, there is a wide selection of elective courses , some of which begin in the second year.

They include:

  • Print Studies (relief, intaglio, silkscreen & fabric printing)
  • 3D Studies
  • Graphics
  • Illustration
  • Photography
  • Advertising
  • Typography
  • Animation

You'll do these as two day/four week blocks in your first and second years. By the third year, you'll be doing at least one full day each week in your chosen subjects.

After your first year you will choose a focus (Imagemaking, 3D, Graphics or Time Based) which will provide a framework for your course choice, so it's important to select a broad range of options in your first year. In each elective you'll undertake design development and resolution, usually as finished artwork; either hand-rendered, or as a digital printout or file.

What will I do after the course?

As a graduate in Visual Communications, you may work as a print or web designer, an advertising 'creative', an animator, or an exhibition designer. You may also find work in book illustration, packaging design or teaching.

Visual Communications graduates from CPIT can be found working for industry leaders such as Strategy Advertising & Design (Christchurch); Weta Digital Studios (Wellington); or Saatchi & Saatchi (Finland).

For any further information please contact us.