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The Nike Swoosh, the Coca Cola bottle, the Louis Vuitton logo, stop motion animation – these are just some of the iconic designs and creations instantly recognised in popular culture around the world. Behind them all are talented creatives with an eye for design and a keen understanding of their audience.
If you also have the drive to create unforgettable designs and push artistic boundaries, try a Bachelor of Design – a degree course where you can develop your technical capabilities and transform your talent into an asset.
What is a Bachelor of Design?
A Curtin Bachelor of Design gives you practical and theoretical skills that prepare you for a career as a professional designer. It caters for a broad range of interests, offering the following majors:
Along with your chosen major, you can study other design subjects or subjects from different learning areas, based on your interests and career goals.
For example, our Bachelor of Design grad Brittany Garbutt partnered her Advertising and Design major with subjects in photography and illustration. She then went on to establish the highly successful Pretzel Australia.
Pretzel’s sea container in the heart of Northbridge. Photo: Jarred Reinke.
As a Curtin design student, you’ll not only learn skills relevant to your chosen discipline, but you’ll also develop fundamental skills valued by all employers – communication, teamwork, critical thinking, initiative and resilience.
What can you do with a Bachelor of Design?
As a designer, you can forge a career creating and improving products, materials, apps and art used and enjoyed in all areas of life, such as smart phones, mobile apps, furniture, films, clothing, advertisements and games.
“The field of design continues to grow at an exponential rate and pervades every aspect of our daily lives,” says Bachelor of Design course coordinator, Jonathan Pillai.
You can find work with marketing and events firms, creative agencies, media companies, special effects companies, photography studios and publishing houses; or you can go freelance and choose your own work environments.
Careers in Design
Graphic designers are visual storytellers – they use imagery to communicate across a range of media to persuade, inform and educate audiences online and in print.
A graphic designer may be tasked with creating a company logo, choosing the lay out for a print brochure, deciding the colour palette for a new product launch, editing photos for an ad or creating website icons. Graphic designers work closely with art directors, content creators and clients, and can work in-house, for an agency or freelance.
The Apple logo is a classic example of the power of good design.
The clothes you’re wearing right now, whether they’re couture or ready-made, were likely concepted by a fashion designer. Fashion designers create garments and accessories that make a social and cultural impact, and they’re experts at fabric manipulation and construction, design, pattern-making and illustration.
Daily fashion designer duties include sketching designs for clothing, footwear and accessories; creating fashion collections; sourcing fabrics from suppliers; approving materials samples; working with pattern makers, drapers and sewers to create garments.
Curtin design grad Antoinette Raphael (centre) showcasing one of her earlier RAW WAR designs. Credit: Antoinette Raphael.
Job growth is always in fashion
Future job opportunities for Fashion, Industrial and Jewellery Designers is predicted to grow by almost 30% by 2026. (Source)
Art directors manage a team of creatives to transform an idea into a finished product. They choose the visual style of a creative piece, such as a music video, photoshoot or theatre production, and share their ideas with their team to make them come to life.
Art directors make key decisions on how a project is visually represented, source props and materials, supervise a creative team, develop budgets and project timelines, review creative assets and present briefs to clients.
Fantastical, photoreal imagery and effects are the bread and butter of a visual effects artist. These artists design computer-generated images and animations that blend seamlessly into films, TV programs and games to enhance a story and the audience experience.
A visual effects artist is involved with designing and managing special effects and animations, using technical software, creating CGI characters, overseeing a project’s visual style, working with a wider team to track and supervise projects, and managing edits.
Watch the video below to hear Curtin design grad Brendan Seals talk about his work on Hollywood films such as Deadpool and Ant-Man.
Did you know?
According to a report by Austrade, there are more than 360 businesses around Australia delivering post-production, digital and visual effects services to local and global media companies.
Behind the scenes of any successful film, TV series or musical is a production manager. They oversee the running of the day-to-day, non-creative elements of a production, ensuring it runs on time and on budget.
The production manager organises shoot schedules, scouts locations and arranges filming approvals, manages budgets, hires crews, coordinates transport and housing logistics, and creates production reports.
Photojournalists tell news stories through pictures – they capture local and global events as they unfold, using their images to document human nature at a particular point in time.
Photojournalist tasks include capturing and framing images under pressure, selecting camera equipment, scouting locations, working closely with subjects, pitching to media organisations, developing prints, editing images in post-production and managing image archives.
Jeff Widener’s ‘Tank Man’ is considered one of the most iconic photographs of all time. Source: Wikipedia
Did you know?
Photography careers are expected to grow by 17%, and photojournalism is one of the top five highest paid photographer jobs (Source).
Good UX/UI designers ensure products do a job the user wants to do without even needing to ask.
Product User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) designers ‘humanise technology’ – that is, they create positive interactions between humans and everyday products such as websites, apps, car stereos and coffee machines. They are responsible for integrating the design, graphics, usability, function and branding of a product to create a user-friendly experience and loyal customers.
Duties of a product UX/UI designer may be conducting user research; developing site maps, prototypes and wireframes, performing user testing, selecting colour schemes and typography, and delivering design solutions to clients.
UX/UI a valuable career option
LinkedIn ranked UX/UI design as one of the top 5 five most in-demand skills of 2020. The starting salary for a graduate entry UX designer in Australia is $85,000 (Source).
Could you be the creator of a the next classic video game series like The Legend of Zelda? Credit: Brett Chalupua, Flickr.
Game designers create games that can be played on computers and consoles. They are versatile and can design many aspects of the game such as the storyline, the visual style, characters, plot, environments and functions, as well as write the code.
Roles of a game designer include concepting a game idea through a storyboard, designing game features, missions or puzzles, documenting and communicating project development, overseeing design discussions, writing code, testing for glitches, and consulting with stakeholders.
Game industry booming
The video game industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing entertainment sectors, and in 2020 was worth $240billion (Source).
Fashion stylists are experts in coordinating and managing clothing, accessories and visual aesthetics for individuals, brands and companies. They may work as personal stylists or as editorial or commercial stylists, curating looks for magazines, runways, advertisements and music videos.
A fashion stylist is able to understand a client’s style needs; create fashion briefs, source clothing, accessories and props, create thematic shoots, research and set fashion trends, curate look books, publicise their work on social media.
Without styling, fashion is just clothes.
A creative strategist is a marketing expert who increases a company’s growth through advertising and marketing projects. They determine a company’s brand, which informs the marketing content produced by creative teams. Creative strategists have both a creative and analytical mindset and are in-demand by industry.
Creative strategist tasks include conducting market and competitor research, analysing ad performance, reviewing and refining business goals, writing marketing project briefs, communicating projects to creative teams, and presenting creative assets to clients.
Start your design career today
There are so many careers possible with a Bachelor of Design – careers that strike the ideal balance between creativity and practical application, and offer job stability and growth.
If you’re ready to kick-start your dream design career, apply for our Bachelor of Design today.
