Faculties

The Open Window offers pre- and postgraduate courses in Visual Communication within the following faculties: Design Studies, Audiovisual (Film & Animation), Multimedia and Form & Space. The programmes are characterised by a broad foundation (see foundation year) that leads to specialisation in the senior years.

 

Design Studies

This faculty produces highly creative designers who deliver appropriate visual solutions using typography, static images and motion graphics to industries concerned with branding, publishing and information.  

Focus areas in Design studies:

Communication Design introduces students to the fundamentals of design principles & theories, typography, image & text integration, basic print, reproduction processes and development of brand systems. Students must be able to conceive, plan and realise communication design, by solving design problems presented as briefs.

Photography students showcase technical competence in a variety of photographic genres. Emphasis is placed on design principles, personal interpretation and approach to the subject, artistic sensitivity of post-production and overall originality, creativity and diversity in the range of photographs delivered for the practical component.  The objective is to deliver ‘thinking photographers’ who possess a visual literacy as well as the required technical craft.

Illustration students produce market-related illustrations using traditional and experimental media. They create conceptually challenging illustrations for commercial purposes and understand the fundamentals and principles of visual communication design with reference to the purpose and function of design.

Students who completed a qualification in Design Studies found employment in the advertising industry, corporate environment, packaging and publishing environments as art directors, layout artists, copywriters, advertising executives, photographers, brand identity developers, illustrators, package designers and information managers, amongst others.

 

Interactive Media Studies

The IMD students design interactive projects in digital media format, by designing well-structured user interfaces, integrating motion graphics and animation. They create online (WEB and mobile applications) and offline (CD ROM / kiosk) brand communication solutions by solving problems presented as briefs.

Interactive Design students create interactive solutions in digital media format. This subject is available to Design studies and Audiovisual students as a non-major option. IMD students will major in this subject. The subject deals mainly with on-line and off-line interfaces for various applications. IMD Technology, Motion Graphics and Multimedia Development are supportive subjects for IMD and cannot be taken as major subjects.

Multimedia Development: This subject teaches core technical skills required for multimedia content development such as advanced software applications, coding, interaction principles and the ability to successfully apply the technical knowledge in computer-based interaction.

Motion Graphics: Video image compositing skills for special effects and motion graphics are the areas of focus. Animated broadcast graphics, using After Effects, are applied in title sequences, DVD menus, advertising and kiosk-applications.

The faculty prepares students for careers as multimedia developers, web and interface designers and information managers, amongst others.

 

Audiovisual Studies: Film & Animation

Film and animation is about combining image and sound in the most effective way for the project at hand, whether it is a music video, an advertisement, or a corporate, animation or experimental film. The student who successfully completes this course is an artist who is also highly skilled on a technical level.

Focus areas in Audiovisual Studies:

Animation: Animators are able to produce creative digitally animated and 3D work that bears evidence of conceptual and technical proficiency. They also use 3D Animation to complement adjacent disciplines and professions.

Game Design: The student may only enroll for Game Design as part of an Animation major. These students must be able to produce creative 3D work that bears evidence of conceptual and technical understanding of game engine specific requirements.

Video students demonstrate the ability to produce an audiovisual product from inception to completion in a manner that displays conceptual, planning and technical proficiency, in both a corporate and non-corporate environment.

Stop-frame animation is essentially the 2D component of Animation, with a stronger emphasis on the illustrative arts than 3D Animation. It is therefore less ‘technical’ than 3D. Stop-frame Animation explores traditional animation techniques, rhythm and timing in animation.

The faculty prepares students for careers in the animation, advertising, production, sound and film industries as an animator, animation production assistant, sound producer, game design developer, special effects artist, motion graphics designer, storyboard artist, technical adviser, 3D-architectural illustrator, producer or director.

 

Form & Space Design (introduced on 2nd year Degree level in 2011)

The designer utilises a developed sense of aesthetics and technology to create purposeful and useful items and space. Conceptualising and research skills, as well as material and structural knowledge are just as important as sensitivity towards applied shape and form in this discipline.

 3D Design and Spatial Design: The student, effectively and economically, applies his knowledge of materials, mechanical strengths, spatial interaction and processes to design functional form and space within the following domains: Retail environment (packaging, point of sale, shop design), Corporate environment (exhibition design, signage, corporate interiors, corporate gifts and gadgets) and Lifestyle environment (design of furniture, artifacts and utilities).

The faculty prepares students for careers in:

Retail environment (packaging, point of sale, shop design, space, digital displays and interactive installations),

Corporate environment (exhibition design, signage, corporate interiors, corporate gifts and gadgets) and

Lifestyle environments (design of furniture, artefacts and utilities).