Graphic Design BA and Graphic Design (Top-Up) BA Welcome Pack
Welcome to Graphic Design BA and Graphic Design (Top-Up) BA – September 2026.
My name is Paul and as a Senior Lecturer for BA (Hons) Graphic Design, on behalf of our team, I’d like to welcome you to our course. We are looking forward to meeting you in mid-September in our studio for Welcome Week, which starts Monday 21 September.
This year our team have refined our course to better reflect the creative industries everchanging expectations, making your degree instantly recognisable to employers. However, communication remains the core element at the heart of everything we do. Our course continues to emphasise the power of design to inform, engage, and connect with a wide range of audiences, ensuring you develop strong conceptual and strategic thinking skills alongside technical expertise.
You’ll also experience some shared learning with Illustration students, gaining a broad creative foundation while working in a dynamic, cross-disciplinary environment – just like in busy, professional design studios. The course is designed to enable you to enjoy developing your creative design skills and thinking, while making sure you build your confidence, ready for your transition into the professional design industry and beyond.
We will regularly support you with constant professional advice and industry experience to aid your future career opportunities. Working in our studio with fellow students, lecturers and our industry contacts, you will develop your individual creativity whilst collaborating on projects that inspire debate about the world around us. You will develop your own design perspectives as you experiment with a range techniques and technologies, challenging what image-making means to you and those you are designing for.
Your Course Leader
Paul Hill
Senior Lecturer in Graphic Design
paul.hill@northampton.ac.uk
I’m here to help, if you have any questions at all or want to meet online to have a chat, please do not hesitate to contact me at paul.hill@northampton.ac.uk
Additional staff
- James Smith, Senior Lecturer BA Graphic Design
- Alex Taylor, Head of School – Art & Design
- Zoe Taylor, Lecturer and Course Leader BA Illustration
- Louise Bird, Senior Lecturer BA Illustration
- Chris Gibbs, Senior Lecturer BA Illustration
- Jamie Sutcliffe, Visiting Lecturer, Critical Studies
- Mengxia Liu, Visiting Lecturer, BA Illustration
- AJ Jackson, Studio Technician
- Emily Marlow, Studio Technician
- Lorraine-Marie James, Academic Librarian for Illustration
Welcome and Induction Sessions
This is your induction timetable with in-person studio sessions starting on Monday 21 September. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Paul Hill: paul.hill@northampton.ac.uk.
Monday 21 September
Session: Course Welcome & Introduction – for new First year students
- Time: 10am – 4pm (BST)
- Location: CH103 – the Graphic Design Studio on 1st floor of the Creative Hub, Waterside campus
Special Instructions: Please come straight up to our studio (CH103), situated on the first floor of the Creative Hub, on the left of the lift, at the end of the balcony corridor. You will be with us all day. Experience a campus tour, meet the team in our Graphic Design studio (CH103), while having a programme introduction and enjoy an afternoon workshop too. You will finish with us at 4pm.
Session: Course Welcome & Introduction – for new Second & Third Year students
- Time: 1 – 4pm (BST)
- Location: CH103 – the Graphic Design Studio on 1st floor of the Creative Hub, Waterside campus
Special Instructions: Please come straight up to our studio (CH103), situated on the first floor of the Creative Hub, on the left of the lift, at the end of the balcony corridor. You will be with us all afternoon. Meet the team in our Graphic Design studio (CH103), while having a programme introduction. You will finish with us at 4pm.
Tuesday 22 September
Session: Personal 1 – 1 Tutorials for new First Year students
- Time: 10am – 1pm (BST)
- Location: CH103 – the Graphic Design Studio on 1st floor of the Creative Hub, Waterside campus
Special instructions: You will have a 10-minute tutorial with one of your lecturers where we can get to know you a bit more, you can ask us questions, and we can offer you any additional support you may need. These will be followed by a relaxed social gathering in the afternoon. Tutorial times will be confirmed in the introduction session on Monday 21 September.
Wednesday 23 September
Session: Studio & Library Induction
- Time: 10am onwards (BST)
- Location: CH103 – the Graphic Design Studio on 1st floor of the Creative Hub, Waterside campus
Special instructions: The Student Union will be running its Freshers Fair all day and we will also arrange inductions the library too. Exact times and where to meet for these inductions will be confirmed in the Welcome session on campus on Monday 21 September
Equipment
We will talk you through the equipment you will require during the Welcome Introduction session on the Monday 21 September, but to get you going please make sure you have:
- Stationery – Pencils, fine liners, sharpies, coloured markers
- Note pads
- A3 sketchbook &/or A3 layout pad
- Any other art & design materials, as appropriate to your chosen ways of working
- Laptops and power cable (if you have one that is – don’t worry if not, we have MacBooks you can borrow when in our studio). If you are looking to get a computer, we teach on and use Apple Macbooks – this is the industry standard. Windows based laptops are fine too, but they are not what you will use in our sector of the creative industry.
- Phone charger – if you need one.
Items you will eventually require later in Semester 1
- Memory Stick or External Hard Drive – to back up your project work
- SD card for using Digital cameras
Reading Lists
To get your creative inspiration flowing before the course starts, spend some time on the Creativebloq or looking through this selection of websites – Creativebloq is full of excellent articles about design, along with It’s Nice That, and Designspiration.
