Pre-university - Design The University of Edinburgh

Overview

The course aims to introduce students to design processes, creative tools and techniques, and to support them to develop communication and presentation skills. Tutorials, group critiques and individualised feedback sessions will help guide students to identify their strengths and hone skills in a particular field of interest.  

The overall experience has been designed to emulate the everyday realities of attending an undergraduate design course in the heart of the Scottish capital. Participants will be expected to embrace the responsibility of creative freedom that the course will provide, working on individual and team projects. The immersive nature of the course will provide an in-depth understanding of the iterative and experimental nature of creative practice as well as the practicalities of translating ideas developed in a sketchbook into a refined outcome.  

The course involves a series of creative skill building workshops such as image making, visualisation techniques, and contextual research. 

Using the Adobe Suite and Studio Workshop facilities available at the Centre for Open Learning, students will explore visual communication through, typography, collage, photography, moving image and digital image manipulation.

An overarching theme that ties these disciplines together is visual communication through image-making to create items such as a Poster, Zine and a short film / moving image. The workshops will also introduce the concept of “studio culture” as an important aspect of specialised study in design. The studio-based workshops will be complemented with the opportunity for students to attend a field trip during the two-week course which will have the city as a point of focus. Suggestions of galleries and historical sites will also be given, which the students can explore outside class for a chance to experience the rich history, culture, and heritage of Edinburgh.    

The course will move from a collaborative to a self-initiated project, offering each student the opportunity to focus on their own interests in different design disciplines. One-to-one tutorials and guided studio sessions will help them discover individual strengths to focus on for the personal project. Students will work individually but also engage in group discussions to develop their ability to reflect and enhance their communication and presentation skills.   

The studio classes and tutorials will focus on individual and team projects. This will be an opportunity to engage in team-building activities and develop personal skills. In this way, students will be equipped with the tools necessary to develop a strong, expressive personal portfolio, ready to apply for an Undergraduate Design Programme.