Bachelor of Design Arts - Major in Visual Art

Indulge in a studio-based setting fostering artistic independence.

Craft original pieces, curate exhibitions, and explore diverse mediums.

Embrace personal growth through traditional and contemporary techniques, enriching visual literacy.

Note: you need to apply for the Bachelor of Design Arts. You will commence study in your chosen major during your second trimester of the course.

CRICOS Course Code: 058836K

Purpose-built facilities and equipment

Access a range of discipline-specific facilities, such as:

• Individual studios
• Aerosol workshops
• Printmaking facilities
• Art materials
• Public gallery

Explore different materials, patterns, and designs to effectively harness cutting-edge tools to craft and enhance your creative endeavours.

Acquire practical skills through hands-on experiences with industry-standard equipment, software, and technology.

Exploration, Contextual and Professional Practice Units

Exploration Units

Discover design fundamentals via workshop-based study that focuses on expanding foundational understanding of design.

Workshop: Body (WRKB)

Focus on adorning the body. Explore the importance of identity in art and design. Play with the translation of 3D to 2D. Explore soft materials and form.

Workshop: Image (WRKI)

Learn the fundamentals of image capture via photography and film. These translate into contemporary digital display contexts, including popular social media applications.

Workshop: Message (WRKM)

Explore and play with digital software (e.g., Adobe Illustrator). Develop product and brand identity constructs using bold and confident ideas.

Workshop: Space (WRKS)

Focus on the environment and responsible innovation, learning to create and understand 3D spaces that connect, engage, challenge, and disrupt.

Future Forward Design (ACC111)

Explore the future of design communication through intelligent systems, automation, and emerging technologies. In this unit, you’ll blend traditional techniques with next-gen tools, building skills in storytelling, technical illustration, and human-centred innovation. Prepare for what’s next, and learn to lead it.

Elective: Brand Strategy (ELE001)

Create a brand strategy for a new product, experience, or retail concept. Develop a Brand Tool Kit and explore promotional aspects that capture branding.

Elective: Design & Wellbeing (ELE002)

Further design and artistic processes. Study and apply wellbeing in creativity through the lens of people, place, and product.

Contextual Units

Explore the impact of context (e.g., historical, trends, visual thinking, technology, culture) on designers' and artists' work and realisation of vision. Experiment in a collaborative learning environment to articulate and understand key influences on art and design.

Design, History & Culture (AXC111)

Explore significant moments from the history of art and design, and interrogate the milestones and foundations that have shaped creative practice.

Social Trend Forecasting (AXC121)

Develop an understanding of how trends are forecast. Analyse, discuss, and develop concepts. Communicate insights by forecasting social and cultural impacts.

Design, Issues & Impact (AXC231)

Explore basic concepts important to critical thought and its visual application. Analyse storytelling and narrative aligned to key themes and concepts.

Global Design Culture (AXE241)

Challenge and reference cultural and sub-cultural shifts. Analyse and respond to social, cultural, and technological changes in modern design, from the industrial revolution to postmodernism.

Professional Practice

Practising artists and designers provide important insights into contemporary practice.

Hear from a range of local and overseas professionals about what is occurring in industry and how they are succeeding in their field. Engage in related personal reflection.

Business Principles (ACC241)

Undertake an entrepreneurial project that engages with the creative industries. Critically analyse business models, supply systems, and production methods. Develop ideas and opportunities to support design business growth.

Professional Practice & Systems (BPC351)

Gain specific insights into selected industry concentrations. Explore systems embedded into the industry relevant to their discipline from concept to consumer.

Professional Placement (APE241)

Further your practical design education in a professional practice placement.

Personal & Professional Practice (BPC361)

Position yourself within your industry, investigate appropriate career pathways, prepare applications for roles in design and art organisations.

Professional Communication (BCC351)

Participate in a capstone project that provides a platform to showcase a final body of work as a major digital or physical project installation.

Design Laboratories

Learn and practise knowledge and skills specific to your major in LCI Design Laboratories, the core of the Bachelor of Design Arts degree.

Engage with the full spectrum of the design and artistic process in studio-based labs. Respond to an industry brief, work on a global project, with a global brand, or generate ideas to solve contemporary issues.

Progress through a series of lab themes (foundational, issues, global, and industry) beginning in trimester 2. Put it all together in your final lab: produce and showcase an advanced body of work that expresses your creative ethos.

Design Laboratory: Foundation (LABV101)

Explore fundamental art movements and concepts to support practical and material workshops, giving you an overview of techniques, methods, and applications within the arts.

Design Technology (APV121)

Explore introductory technical skills required to perform professionally in your major area of study. Engage with interactive, 2D, and 3D technical design. Create design templates and digital models.

Design Laboratory: Issues (LABV102)

Explore weekly topics about different issues. See how the arts have interpreted, reacted to, contributed to, or represented these issues across time and culture.

Design Sub Major (ASV111)

Develop foundational knowledge of an alternate discipline. Develop basic skills and understanding by conceptualising ideas and contextualising work within an alternate industry practice.

Design Laboratory: Global (LABV203)

Explore your own context and begin to think of the world more broadly with a focus on global perspectives. Experiment with international collaboration, researching different cultures and art practices both historically and contemporaneously.

Design Laboratory: Industry (LABV204)

Visit and research different art spaces and institutions through physical excursions and digital means. Carry out an industry project, a client brief delivered by an industry partner(s).

Design Laboratory: Capstone (LABV205)

Apply acquired lab concepts to develop major bodies of work for presentation. Emerge as a young professional through exploratory creative development and presentation of original ideas and viable concepts.