Graphic Design

Graphic design is the creative discipline concerned with visual communication. Its practitioners translate ideas, information, and messages into visual form across every medium imaginable, from printed books and packaging to digital interfaces, environmental signage, motion graphics, and brand identity systems. Good graphic design is not merely decorative: it shapes how information is understood, how organisations are perceived, and how audiences are guided through complex content.

The discipline requires both creative imagination and systematic thinking, and practitioners must understand typography, colour, image, layout, and the specific constraints of each medium they work in.

The Open University offers graphic design on a part-time, distance learning basis, making it accessible to students who cannot attend a traditional campus. This includes working professionals who are already in creative roles and wish to formalise their knowledge, career changers who want to build design skills alongside existing commitments, and those who prefer the independence of self-directed study. The OU's approach to design education is built around practical project work, critical reflection, and engagement with the history and theory of design as well as its practice.

While the lack of a physical studio environment is a real difference from campus-based design education, the distance format encourages self-directed experimentation and builds the habits of independent creative practice that professional designers need.

You will study typography, visual identity, image-making, digital design, the history of graphic design, and the critical frameworks used to evaluate and discuss visual communication. The flexibility of the distance learning format means you can develop work at your own pace and build a portfolio over time.

Graduates from graphic design programmes work as designers in agencies, in-house design teams, publishing, advertising, film and television, digital product companies, and as freelancers. The combination of technical skills and critical visual literacy also supports careers in art direction, brand strategy, and design management. Postgraduate study in graphic design or related areas is an option for those wishing to develop their practice or pursue research.