Design courses

About BA (hons) Design For Climate Justice in University of the Arts London

BA (Hons) Design for Climate Justice places design action and ecological literacy at the centre of your learning.

Working across disciplines including graphic design, illustration, data visualisation and interaction design, you’ll learn how to communicate the urgency of climate change to a range of diverse audiences, along with the responsibility of designers to take action in addressing environmental and social challenges.

You’ll be supported to develop and position your skills and understanding of visual communication design as a mechanism for addressing environmental and social challenges - learning how to interrogate, integrate, facilitate, collaborate, advocate, activate, agitate, cultivate, originate, narrate and educate towards climate justice in ways that challenge existing inequalities.

Developing your understanding of graphic design and data visualisation processes in Year 1 will enable you to communicate climate justice in ways that generate impact and prompt action. Year 2 will provide an opportunity to interrogate visual communication through a wider range of disciplines including interaction design, illustration and branding. In Year 3, you’ll consolidate your knowledge by exploring your own voice as a creative practitioner, which you’ll also consider in relation to climate science, social, racial and gender justice, and your role as a ‘citizen designer’.

Throughout the course, you’ll be empowered to build the expertise and confidence needed to become a responsible design practitioner by exploring a series of questions across 3 key areas:

Environmental

• How do we reduce our impact?
• How can we use visual storytelling to decipher and challenge current systems to design an eco-socially fairer world?
• How can we co-design with nature and reduce our carbon footprint?

Social

• What are new ways for us to visually communicate together?
• How can we draw on the expertise of multiple voices and perspectives to inform visual communication for climate activism?
• How can we both engage with and support diverse voices through collaborative and participatory design?

Experiential

• What do we believe is possible?
• How can we utilise visual communication to question mainstream approaches to articulating sustainability?
• How can we consider futures and speculative design experiences?

What to expect

• Design for good: Drawing on visual communication as a creative practice, you’ll gain a solid grounding in general design principles while learning how design can be used for good – for example, by auditing your own work and approaches for impact, carbon footprint and material use.
• Technical skills: You’ll gain a broad range of skills in research, concept generation, design principles and climate science. You’ll also learn a range of design techniques to ensure you have the knowledge and understanding to apply visual communication to real-world contexts.
• Design narratives: You’ll develop the critical skills needed to articulate ideas both visually and verbally through storytelling which promotes equality, diversity, inclusivity, climate action and social justice.
• Contextual understanding: You’ll build a contextual vocabulary and historical knowledge which draws on climate science to inform your design process and outcomes.
• Collaboration and leadership: You’ll develop teamwork, co-design and management skills through collaborations with diverse external partners and your Design School peers.

Industry experience and opportunities

Throughout the course, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in live projects, respond to client feedback, and develop a portfolio of projects to demonstrate your professional practice.

You’ll also direct your Final Year project towards your specific subject interests, refining your area of specialism in visual communications.

Additionally, you’ll have the opportunity to undertake the Diploma in Professional Studies or the Diploma in Creative Computing between Years 2 and 3 to enhance your learning experience and employability skills.

Entry requirements

• High School leaving examinations - We will consider any High School leaving examinations that are considered to be the equivalent to A-level examinations in the UK.

English language requirements

• IELTS: 6.0 - 6.5 overall, with no less than 5.5 in each component.
• TOEFL iBT: 80 - 90 overall.
• PTE Academic: 51 - 58 (with no less than 51 in each component).

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