Bachelor of Fine Arts (Interactive and Visual Design)

Overview

• Gain practical skills in designing for new media technologies and digital screen displays.
• Study digital and graphic design, advertising, web design, interface design, usability and information architecture.
• Create a portfolio and exhibit design works to industry professionals.
• Gain employment in emerging industries: games development, multiplatform interactive entertainment, and multimedia installation production.

Details

Visual media pervades virtually every aspect of our daily lives; accessible online, via phones, televisions, urban screens, and in print. Designers play a pivotal role in the look and feel of visual media, and the ways people experience it.

This course will provide you with the conceptual understandings, practical skills and working methods required to become a creative and innovative designer with specialist skills in designing for digital screens.

You will learn how to shape the expressive, aesthetic and communicative qualities of media technologies. You will apply design knowledge and skills to the process of creating compelling multiplatform experiences spanning physical and virtual worlds using web, public display, and mobile technologies.

As the course progresses, you will develop the ability to lead projects through all stages of design from ideation and concept development to production and publication.

Why choose this course?

Interactive and Visual Design at QUT combines design and new technologies within a creative studio setting. Through a focus on experimentation, creativity, imagination and design thinking, this course will ensure you are prepared for a career as a designer in a rapidly changing industry.

This course provides you with a fertile environment to develop your design and technical skills in new digital technologies. Our studio approach will support you to develop a strong understanding of design innovation, which you will apply through exploring a range of media and technologies. You will also be encouraged to tailor design skills to match your career aspirations.

You will specialise your design interests in the areas of visual communication design or interactive media design. You can also complement your design studies with options in 3D computer graphics, advertising, animation, art history, fashion design, game design, online environments or visual arts to diversify your employment options.

Throughout the course, you will create a portfolio of individual design work as well as collaborate on industry-based, interdisciplinary team projects, which you can consolidate through research opportunities and industry placements. In your final year, you will have the opportunity to create and exhibit a major design work at the graduate exhibition.

Career outcomes

This course will prepare you for a career as a designer in a range of creative industries. Graduates work in traditional design companies in areas such as graphic design, digital advertising and marketing, branding, print and television campaigns, web design and electronic publishing, interactive entertainment design, information design, interface design, usability, knowledge management, and information architecture.

They also gain employment in new industries. Games companies employ graduates to work on content production, interaction design, visual design and real-time and virtual environments modelling. Film and television production companies employ graduates to work on the design of multiplatform interactive entertainment. Multimedia design and interactive installation production is also a growth area in museums and other cultural institutions. Pathways exist to prepare you for further study including honours.

Units

Your course

Year 1

You will focus on developing an individual design practice. Working with a variety of media in the design studios, you will develop a foundational understanding of visual communication, motion graphics, and temporal and interaction design principles. You will also acquire the technical skills needed to implement your designs in print and electronic media. By responding to design briefs, you will learn to target your design to a specific audience, context and purpose. You will participate in critical reviews and discover how they benefit the development of design solutions.

Year 2

Extending your visual and interaction design skills, you will develop your design practice through a specialist focus in graphic design, 3D computer graphics and virtual environments, animation or interaction design for tangible media. Real-world client briefs will introduce you to collaboration in interdisciplinary project teams and industry workflows. You will also begin your elective studies.

Year 3

In your final year, you will consolidate your specialist design practice and your understanding of project development, studio communication, and responses to briefs within a design studio. Drawing on the specialist knowledge you gained in second year you will work within a design team, collaborating in the production of industry-level projects. Guest lectures and master classes from industry professionals and authentic, industry-focused learning experiences, including workplace learning options, will ensure that you are workplace ready. The year will culminate in a graduating exhibition which will be attended by industry representatives.

Entry requirements

Minimum academic requirements

Did you complete secondary school in Australia?

Course fees

Your actual fees may vary depending on which units you choose. All fees are based on current fixed fee prices. We review fees annually.

Scholarships and financial support

You can apply for scholarships to help you with study and living costs.

View all scholarships