Yearbooks

Programme: BA Information Design

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Code Faculty
01130102 Faculty of Humanities
Credits Duration NQF level
Minimum duration of study: 4 years Total credits: 522 NQF level:  08
Contact:
Prof DB Reyburn
[email protected]
+27 (0)124205189

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 candidates will be considered for admission:
  1. A candidate who is in possession of a certificate that is deemed by the University to be equivalent to the required National Senior Certificate (NSC) with university endorsement; a candidate who is a graduate from another recognised 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
  2. Candidates who have completed the National Senior Certificate with admission to degree studies or a certificate of conditional exemption on the basis of a candidate’s international ("foreign") qualifications, the so-called “Immigrant” or “Foreign Conditional Exemption”. The only condition for the “Foreign Conditional Exemption” that is accepted is: ‘completion of the degree course’. The exemption certificate is obtainable from Universities South Africa (USAf). Detailed information is available on the website at mb.usaf.ac.za.
  • To retain admission, learners will be expected to obtain an APS of at least 28 in the NSC.
  • Life Orientation is excluded when calculating the APS.

Minimum requirements

Achievement level

English Home Language or English First Additional Language

 

APS

NSC/IEB

AS Level

 

5

 

C

 

30

Should you be selected, you will be expected to achieve an APS of at least 28 in Grade 12 to retain admission.

The NBT is not applicable to this programme.

*  Cambridge A level candidates who obtained at least a D in the required subjects, will be considered for admission. International Baccalaureate (IB) HL candidates who obtained at least a 4 in the required subjects, will be considered for admission.

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

A student must pass all the core modules to be promoted to the next year of study. The Dean may approve exceptions to these promotion 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: 122

To be promoted to the second year of study all core modules must be passed.

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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Minimum credits: 120

To be promoted to the third year of study all core modules must be passed.

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

To be promoted to the fourth year of study all core modules must be passed.

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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