Yearbooks

Programme: BA Information Design

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Code Faculty
01130102 Faculty of Humanities
Credits Duration
Duration of study: 4 years Total credits: 522
Contact:
Dr F Cassim
[email protected]
+27 (0)124205188

Programme information

This programme qualifies candidates for entry-level positions into the mass communications industries such as graphic design, branding and advertising as well as broadcast design. With a strong social underpinning, the programme incorporates design strategies, design applications and design products in print, ambient and screen-based media and technologies.

Closing date for applications: 30 June annually

Admission requirements

  • The following persons will be considered for admission: a candidate who is in possession of a certificate that is deemed by the University to be equivalent to the required Grade 12 certificate with university endorsement; a candidate who is a graduate from another tertiary institution or has been granted the status of a graduate of such an institution; and a candidate who is a graduate of another faculty at the University of Pretoria.

  • Candidates who comply with the minimum subject requirements and achievement levels as well as the APS requirements of these programmes will be granted placement in the programmes, subject to the availability of space. The abovementioned is not applicable to selection programmes.

  • To retain admission, learners will be expected to obtain an APS of at least 28 in Grade 12. Prospective students who have already been granted provisional admission in these programmes, but obtained at least an APS of 27 in Grade 12, will be considered by the Admission Committee should space be available. The Admission Committee of the Faculty of Humanities will consider these students once the results of the National Benchmark Test (NBT) are available and depending on the availability of space.

  • The Faculty will assess satisfactory performance in the NBT in the light of its commitment to ensure that an appropriate proportion of the applicants will be drawn from the disadvantaged category of the population.

  • Applicants who meet the minimum APS requirement, but who do not comply with the subject requirements must write the NBT.

  • Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.

  • Departmental selection for this degree programme involves a merit selection process and a final selection process, as well as the submission of a questionnaire and a portfolio of at least 20 recent works, which must be submitted to the Department of Visual Arts by 30 June. Detailed information about the selection process and the portfolio requirements can be obtained at www.up.ac.za/visualarts. Based on the questionnaire and the portfolio, you will be notified whether you qualify to continue with the final selection process. If your merit selection was successful, you will be invited to attend the final selection process, which consists of visualisation tests, practical tests and an interview. The final selection process takes place during August. You will be notified by end August of the result of the final selection tests. Approximately 100 applicants will be invited to take part in the final selection process.

Minimum requirements 

Achievement level

APS

Afrikaans or English

NSC/IEB

HIGCSE

AS-Level

A-Level

5

3

C

C

30

Additional requirements

Departmental selection is necessary prior to admission to this programme. Although Art as a Grade 12 subject is not a requirement, a candidate must be able to demonstrate his/her creative potential and commitment to the chosen field of study. Candidates are therefore required to submit a portfolio of work for a merit selection review and, if invited, undergo a series of tests and be interviewed by a selection committee. Contact the coordinator for more information. A student who chooses this programme must work in an appropriate design studio, approved by the coordinator, for at least six weeks during the third and fourth years.

Other programme-specific information

Students who are deemed NOT to be at risk of their level of academic literacy, are exempted from ALL 110 and ALL 125.

Promotion to next study year

##Promotion to the second year of study

Pass: IOW 100, ILL 101, VKK 111, 121 and 123.

##Promotion to the third year of study

Pass: IOW 200, VKK 211,221,222.

##Promotion to the fourth year of study

Pass: IOW 300, VKK 311, 321 and 322.

##The Dean may approve exceptions to these requirements on the recommendation of the head of the department.

Pass with distinction

The degree is awarded with distinction to a candidate who obtains at least 75% in IOW 400 and VKK 402.

Minimum credits: 134

Promotion to the second year of study

Pass: IOW 100, ILL 101, VKK 111, 121 and 123.

Fundamental modules

Core modules

  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    The module develops drawing skills that can be used to visually explore and create images and ideas for visual communication. An understanding of structure, form, space and lighting is developed through perceptual exploration of man-made and organic forms, supported by related theory.

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  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    Introduction to design as visual form; elements, principles and logic in design; colour and its use as a design tool; analysis, synthesis and application of selected techniques. Introduction to typography: terminology, historical development and basic text forming; typography as direct communication; typography as illustrative entity. Introduction to the design process: originality and conceptual values; research, concept development, visual articulation and design rationales; self-evaluation.

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  • Module content:

    Foundations of visual culture
    This module introduces art and visual culture theory using a wide range of texts and ideas. The module gives students wide exposure to visual discourses and includes a variety of visual culture examples e.g. artworks, advertisements. These discourses may include:  exploring what visual culture is; modes of analysis; introducing terminology such as ideology and myth; dealing with selected periods from history contextually; introducing cultural icons and themes from popular visual culture.

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  • Module content:

    Images across media: current issues
    This module presents an introduction into the ways in which images appear across media in contemporary visual culture from a specific African perspective within the global. This is done by means of exploring key modes, themes, genres, platforms and visual texts. Among the media and mediums that may be covered are photography, art, graphic design, advertising, film, documentaries, video, digital and social media. 

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  • Module content:

    Images across media: historical perspectives

    This module presents a historical overview of the ways in which images have appeared across media in visual culture from a specific African vantage point within the global. This is done by means of exploring key modes, themes and visual texts with the aim of fostering an understanding of how historical events and cultural and ideological trends underpin the visual. Among the topics that may be covered are the progression of graphic and industrial design from the Industrial Revolution, photography, art, fashion, dress, magazines, printed culture and postcards. The module also provides an introduction to research approaches and methods in the field of visual culture. 

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Minimum credits: 120

Promotion to the third year of study

Pass: IOW 200, VKK 211, 221

Core modules

  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    This module allows development of skills necessary for the conceptualisation, visualization and presentation of ideas and images with different meanings and purposes. Areas explored include interpretation of word and image relationships, visual rhetoric, characterisation, diagramming of information, instructional storyboarding and media experimentation.

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  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    Introduction to digital technology. Typography and layout: typographic expression; layout systems and structures; integration of image and text. Photography in design. Design as visual communication: expressive and utilitarian dimensions; selected techniques and media. Applications and design problem solving in visual identity, packaging, editorial and promotional design.

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  • Module content:

    Gender, sexuality and visual representation
    Introduction to the representation of sex, gender and sexuality in visual culture.  Gender theory and terminology related to feminism, masculinity studies and lbgtq theory (lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgendered, queer) are unpacked. Themes and issues in gender and identity politics such as the male hero, the nude in late 19th century art, the femme fatale, hysteria, androgyny and transsexuality are dealt with. Sexuality and gender issues across a range of visual cultural such as soaps, sitcoms, artworks, advertisements, fashion, music videos and films are addressed.

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  • Module content:

    Visual (Post)colonialisms This module investigates aspects of Africanness, Afrocentrism, multiculturalism, transnationalism and the African diaspora and studies a cross section of work including traditional art, tourist art and the hybrid aesthetics of contemporary African art and visual culture. The module also focuses on the ideology of imperialism and colonialism and its influence on art and visual culture from the nineteenth century onwards. The influence of postcolonial thinking on the deconstruction of the ideology of colonialism is highlighted with reference to landscape and memory, the exotic and primitivism in South African visual culture.

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Minimum credits: 160

Promotion to the fourth year of study

Pass: IOW 300, VKK 311 and 321

Core modules

  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    This module allows for integration of imaging and visualisation with selected Information Design outcomes. Personal approaches to conceptualisation, critical reflection, autographic style and use of media are developed to visually explore and interpret deeper levels of meaning.

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  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    Computer proficiency and digital technology as design tool and design medium. Production management: technology and production systems for paper and screen-based media. Design as visual communication: content, audience, media and design strategy. Applications and design problem solving in visual identity, packaging, exhibition, editorial, advertising and promotional design. Individualised design research.

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  • Module content:

    Post/Modernities: Contemporary discourses
    This module investigates Modernism and Postmodernism as the dominant aesthetic, discursive and visual paradigms of the 20th and 21st centuries. Key concepts in these discourses and counter-discourses are highlighted and explored, such as the creation of modern subjectivity, the beautiful and the sublime, the avant garde, the metaphysics of presence, originality, authorship, hermeneutics, the “language turn”, différance and the so-called “end of art”. Theorist may include: Kant, Heidegger, Derrida and Foucault.

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  • Module content:

    Visual and virtual spaces 
    Critical decoding of culturally encoded ideas and ideologies embodied in the construction of space, place, and cyberspace in selected Modernist and Postmodernist cultural practices. Topics include spaces of consumption and entertainment such as shopping malls; gender and spatiality; symbolic spaces; surveillance and the architecture of fear. Land art, environmental art and related debates are also addressed. The ways in which real space is virtualised through new technologies; the history and development of virtual reality, virtual communities, the cyborg and cyberpunk, as well as post humanism, are all engaged with specific emphasis on how embodiment and disembodiment are represented visually.

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Minimum credits: 120

Core modules

  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection
    Processes in design practice: planning strategies; methods for problem solving; design evaluation; communication; business principles and ethics. Integrated application of knowledge and skills through advanced design problem solving. Individualised design research.

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  • Module content:

    *Closed – requires departmental selection This module focuses on the study of the history, theory and criticism of design. It includes the consideration of current design discourses within national and international contexts.

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The information published here is subject to change and may be amended after the publication of this information. The General Regulations (G Regulations) apply to all faculties of the University of Pretoria. It is expected of students to familiarise themselves well with these regulations as well as with the information contained in the General Rules section. Ignorance concerning these regulations and rules will not be accepted as an excuse for any transgression.

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