COURSE OVERVIEW

The BA (Hons) Digital Design & Advertising programme encourages distinctive voices in creative marketing, advertising and digital design. Working collaboratively with our Graphic Design programme you will push the boundaries of digital communication and production. To be a Digital Design and Advertising student from The Northern is to be a digital communicator, a visionary, a social content creator and a digital specialist. Our programme, promotes changemakers, we rethink what we know, we question what we do, and we challenge the world as we know it, through cutting edge design, through expansive experimentation, through new ideas and through our community. Collectively, as a design studio from the moment our students arrive, we make work that matters.
This programme will give you skills applicable to all spectrums of the industry including digital design, visual communication, creative advertising, strategy, user experience, app & web creation and account management. Developed directly with industry to ignite the mind of the true creative thinker.

You will develop and refine your skills as a digital designer through branding, digital advertising, campaign and social media marketing, animation & motion graphics, app development and product enterprise. Paired with problem solving, consumer driven strategy, digital campaigns and social media platforms, you will explore the full life cycle of a product or service from concept through to market. As graduates you will leave us primed as innovative practitioners. Developed and working closely alongside our Graphic Design programme, this Digital Design & Advertising course offers digital design, campaign and commercially focused briefs through shared modules

You will have access to a wide range of industry standard equipment and software including a print studio and several large design studios with easy access to a suite of iMacs.

You will be working in a creative community surrounded by fellow designers, image makers, creatives and artists where you will engage in regular workshops, technical demonstrations and critiques with tutors. You will be encouraged to submit to national and international competitions, such as Design & Art Direction (D&AD), Royal Society of Arts (RSA), International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD) and Creative Conscience. Regular live projects and guest speakers from industry will enhance your portfolio and learning. Collaborative projects and placement opportunities are encouraged during your study to establish yourself as an emerging designer within this growing and fast paced industry.

Collaborative projects and placement opportunities are encouraged during your study to and you will have the opportunity to develop and incorporate other areas into your practice such as photography and 3D design. As you progress through the programme you will have the opportunity to shape and form your design direction - adding specialist skills to your base knowledge. This culminates in your final year where you build your portfolio through independent and self directed projects - developing your individual creative voice as an exciting contemporary designer.

Awards
Creative Conscience 2022: Winner, Impact Category
Creative Conscience 2022: Winner, Mental Health Category
D&AD 2022 New Blood: The Portfolios, Graphic Design
D&AD 2022 New Blood: The Portfolios, Mixed Discipline
Creative Conscience 2021: Winner, Human Rights Category

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Student Voice

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STAFF

OLIVIA BURTON
OLIVIA BURTON
Director of SAR / Head of Faculty Olivia joined The Northern School of Art in 2017, after working in industry for over twelve years. Olivia’s dual role as Director, focuses on the School’s approach to Research and Scholarly Activity while overseeing the leadership of the Visual Arts Faculty. Olivia is a specialist in higher education with her doctorate research focusing on Creative Art School pedagogy. Prior to join the School, Olivia's career began working with a number of leading graphic design and advertising agencies. Olivia’s most recent industry role focused on internationalising a design and interior company. Olivia led the brand campaign in the Middle East, managing a design team and leading international design projects for the hospitality industry. Furthermore, operating freelance, Olivia developed and led an award-winning ecommerce design business to promote local and emerging design practitioners. She is a regular guest speaker at Digital Leaders and Woman in Digital and had worked as an enterprise mentor. Olivia’s own practice has a digital focus and expertise is in research-driven, commercially orientated design. Her keen interest is in the area where design meets business. Olivia’s skills lie in developing the student’s ability to design commercially aware graphic and digital solutions. Qualifications: BA (Hons), MA, (Studying PhD), CIM, FHEA
PAUL CLAY
PAUL CLAY
Lecturer Paul Clay joined The Northern School of Art 2009 after working in industry for over ten years. Paul is currently a senior lecturer, working across both the Graphic Design and Digital Design & Advertising programmes. Prior to joining The Northern, Paul worked for a wide range of design agencies and high profile clients as an in-house senior graphic designer across the North East, bringing with him a wealth of experience upon joining The Northern School of Art. Paul’s current work is occupied with design research and practice, focusing on community history and design for social good. Paul develops his portfolio working with local charities, in both raising awareness and proceeds to challenge social issues and promoting design for change. Qualifications: BA (Hons) PGCE, FHEA
OWEN WADDINGTON
OWEN WADDINGTON
Lecturer Owen joined The Northern School of Art after working in multiple industry roles for almost 5 years. Owen is currently working across both the Graphic Design and Digital Design & Advertising programmes. Owen works with a social conscious - using creativity in order to create real world change. Prior roles in industry have allowed Owen to explore commercial graphic design with an ethical and social focus for Newcastle based Sail Creative, Sail’s focus was to work with clients that are on the forefront of change and collaborate with those who recognise the value of creativity and partnerships in order to elevate their impact. During his time at Sail they were recognised in Creative Boom’s top 15 places to work as a graphic designer in the UK, alongside the likes of Accept and Proceed, Spotify and DixonBaxi. Owen is co-founder of [blank spacecraft] an experimental creative studio. Works include graphic collections, experimental typographic image making through creative destruction and also developments into 3D and motion. He has also researched the meanings of limited edition and ways in which the design process can be challenged beyond the concept of a final outcome. Qualifications: BA (Hons), MA
JAKE HOLLINGS
JAKE HOLLINGS
Lecturer Jake Hollings is a multidisciplinary graphic artist with an emphasis on illustration, graphic image making and print. He has created visuals for a range of clients within the music industry as well as editorial illustration, textile print design and self-published works. Selected clients include BBC Music Introducing, Glasgow Film Festival, The Guardian, Culture Trip and Sony Music. He has had various self-published books and textiles stocked globally, including Draw Down Books, Slow Down Studio, We Occupy and Fine Little Day. Jake specialises in analogue image making techniques and printmaking for commercial contexts, often utilising Risograph and silkscreen printing to inform his visual language. He won a D&AD New Blood award in 2015 before completing an MA in Creative Practice from Leeds Arts University. Qualifications: BA (Hons), MA
KATHRYN BELL
KATHRYN BELL
Technician/Demonstrator Kathryn Bell is an artist and print technician working in the North East of England, where she graduated with a first-class honours degree in Fine Art. Kathryn is an experienced print technician who demonstrates print techniques to students in Graphic Design, Illustration and across the school. Her own work mostly includes relief, screen print and cyanotype, often combing a mixture of these processes to create hybrid prints. Kathryn is active in keeping up to date with printmaking trends and opportunities and uses this information to support students to access exciting opportunities. Kathryn is a member of People of Print, a community of printmakers, illustrators and graphic designers who are outstanding in their field. She regularly exhibits and sells her work around the UK and permanently in a store in Durham City. Kathryn is a featured printmaker with Green Door Printmaking Studio (International Print Exchange) and regularly participates in the Cascade Print Exchange (USA). Qualifications: BA (Hons)

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