Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in Illustration

at Norwich University of the Arts United Kingdom

Our BSc (Hons) in User Experience Design is rooted in NUA’s traditional strength in graphic design, design thinking, and creative problem-solving.

The User Experience Design degree gives you the essential skills to become a successful UX designer – shaping how people engage with digital products and services.

Your learning will focus on applying user experience and digital design principles that are highly prized in today’s fast-changing design industry.

You will use industry-standard technologies and prototyping techniques to develop professional solutions for a range of contexts.

In each case, you will move from research to the creation of user journeys to the design of user experiences that work across multiple digital environments: from desktop to mobile.

Responding to one of the fasting growing sectors of the visual communications industry, this course will allow you to use design, problem solving, research and psychology to test and create better digital products and services.

You are curious about how design can influence human behaviour – guiding people’s actions and decisions.

You are eager to learn how to test your ideas and work through versions towards the most effective creative solution to whatever problem you’re trying to solve – whether you’re designing an app, website, or physical product.

You’ll learn research and analytical skills that will help you to understand how people react in the face of different design experiences online and in the physical world.

Taking Year 0 at the beginning of your degree course will get your studies at Norwich University of the Arts off to a flying start. The extra year of study will help you explore creative ideas and begin to develop the practical skills, research techniques and ways of thinking that are essential to undergraduate success.

Our BA (Hons) Games Art and Design degree has an international reputation for producing graduates who excel in a constantly evolving industry. The Rookies ranked NUA in the global top 16 for Concept Art and Illustration and in the top 50 in its world rankings — thanks to the reputation of the Games course.

The course is a member of the Sony PlayStation First Academic Partnership Programme and is accredited by ScreenSkills and the games industry body TIGA, which also crowned NUA the best educational institution in 2017.

You will explore the mechanics of playful interaction on our BSc (Hons) Games Development degree as you develop skills in prototyping and user testing.

You are a games designer, developer, or coder who wants to learn the end-to-end process of making games and prepare for a successful career in a dynamic and rapidly-evolving industry.

You will work with different technologies and platforms, including console, web, mobile, PC, augmented and virtual reality.

How you think, make decisions, and develop ideas will evolve as you learn to code games that give users an exceptional experience. And you will be part of the NUA Games community, interacting and collaborating with your peers on our sister course, BA Games Art and Design.

Workshops, technical demonstrations and live briefs will help prepare you for a career in the games industry.

NUA Games is a member of the Sony PlayStation First Academic Partnership Programme, and was ranked as the UK’s best educational institution in 2017. The Rookies, a global panel of games industry experts, ranked NUA in the world’s top 50 in 2020.

Games development – your way

You will be exposed to a variety of industry-standard platforms and technologies – including virtual, augmented, mixed and extended reality – but will always focus on your own personal and professional interest.

Applying computer science, and knowledge of emerging technologies to the creation of prototypes, you’ll create different types of game for different audiences, based on evidence gathered through research, observation and practical experimentation.

You’ll evolve how you think, make decisions, and develop ideas, to ultimately code games that give users an exceptional experience.

Taking Year 0 at the beginning of your degree course will get your studies at Norwich University of the Arts off to a flying start. The extra year of study will help you explore creative ideas and begin to develop the practical skills, research techniques and ways of thinking that are essential to undergraduate success.

Our BA (Hons) Fashion course will encourage exploration in concept development, pattern cutting, and professional garment construction supported by technical skills and couture levels of craftsmanship.

Your technical expertise and understanding of materials and industry markets will grow by working on design competitions and briefs for high profile companies such as Burberry and ASOS.

Guest lectures, seminars and workshops with acclaimed practitioners, stylists and academics will give you insight into how the industry works.

We will help you to develop a professional portfolio to showcase your design identity and profile the quality of your manufactured garments to employers.

Fashion design skills

We’ll encourage you to innovate as well as to understand historic and contemporary trends in fashion.

You’ll develop essential technical skills to support your design thinking, including:

• Design development
• Planning
• Pattern cutting
• Garment construction
• Tailoring.

Our BA (Hons) course has a global reputation for producing graduates who are creative thinkers with accomplished technical skills and a strong grasp of the latest technology.

The course benefits from close links to some of the leading names in the design industry.

You’ll follow a proven path that has led to NUA graduates securing roles at some of the UK’s leading design studios, branding and advertising agencies.

Design ideas that work

Our course has a strong emphasis on commercial work and you’ll be challenged to generate high quality creative solutions, including:

• Visual identities
• Packaging
• Websites
• Cross-platform advertising campaigns.

Briefs are designed to inspire you to generate original, innovative and – crucially – effective design solutions.

You’ll learn how to question a brief using research techniques that will help you develop a thorough understanding of each client, their challenges and target market.

You will be making films from week one and set-ready by the time you graduate when you join our BA (Hons) Film and Moving Image Production degree, accredited by ScreenSkills.

We will encourage you to explore a variety of filmmaking mediums and platforms to become an accomplished and creative storyteller.

You’ll learn by doing as you become a flexible, multi-skilled collaborator with technical and craft skills highly-prized by industry.

You’ll explore how the production skills you use and creative choices you make can shape and change the story you are telling.

Your creativity and professional craft, creative expression and problem-solving skills will grow at NUA as you explore interior design as a way of addressing human needs and social challenges.

Our BA (Hons) Interior Design degree will encourage you to consider how people react to spaces as you gain experience of designing for a range of interiors: from homes and housing projects to hotels and shops, restaurants and offices.

Professional and design skills

Working in our Interior Design studio and workshops, you will explore how scale, light, colour, materials, texture and their acoustics affect human reactions as you consider the social implications of design.

And with the support of our expert academics and technicians, you’ll master a variety of techniques and visualisation methods, including:

• Sketching by hand
• Industry-standard 3D digital platforms
• Collage
• Photography
• Model-making

Take the next step towards becoming a qualified architect on our MArch Architecture course*.

Developing a unique design voice is at the heart of the course while equipping successful graduates with the necessary professional competencies.

Research-by-design

The course is made up of eight units taught over two years full-time and three years part-time study. Each unit falls into the area of Design Studio, Research or Professional Studies.

Studio options range from practitioner-led masterclasses, or active research in coastal architectural design, contemporary considerations in conservation/rehabilitation, modern vernacular architecture in provincial towns and rural areas.

You will be supported to tackle real-world issues, while speculating and proposing new futures through bold experimentation and boundless enquiry in project-based learning.

Our tutors come from industry and research and our community is a place where academics, practitioners and students are co-designing new ways of thinking.

Teaching is delivered in a dedicated postgraduate studio space, equipped with computer workstations, model-making facilities, large format printers and 3D printers.

You share the infrastructure of a specialist creative arts university with equipment, expertise and support of disciplines such as Games, Fine Art, Fashion, and Interior Design.

You have access to workshops with capability for plastics, metal, wood, and concrete work.

Our new BA (Hons) Fashion Marketing and Business degree course will offer you an insight into the commercial fundamentals, marketing strategies and core brand development techniques that are used to run the fashion industry today.

You’ll create dynamic marketing campaigns, retail concepts, buying proposals and business plans that will allow you fully understand and operate within successful fashion businesses.

As you build your knowledge of fashion marketing, you will develop skills that are sought after by employers, including:

• Marketing and Promotional strategies
• International Fashion Branding
• Fashion Retail and Visual Merchandising
• Fashion Buying and Merchandising

And you will follow in the path of graduates from our sister course, Fashion Communication and Promotion, who are set-up for successful careers after work experience and internships at brands such as Vivienne Westwood, Jimmy Choo, Net A Porter and Adidas.

Your passion for exploring visual ideas and brand communication across all platforms will be at the heart of your time at NUA studying on our award-winning Graphic Communication course.

Our BA (Hons) Graphic Communication degree is closely aligned to industry and you will work on a wide variety of briefs set by staff, professional design agencies and external competitions.

You will engage in work that explores traditional formats as well as emerging digital technologies such as augmented and virtual reality. Your knowledge and skills will grow in branding, identity, advertising, motion graphics, interaction/UX design, whilst developing strong skills in creative thinking and ideas-led communication solutions.

Design solutions to real world problems

You’ll be challenged to engage with real-world problems, controversies and commercial briefs through research, design and technology.

Your original ideas are as likely to play out through an app, website or augmented reality experience as a printed poster, pamphlet or journal.