Choose one essay from the list below if you are taking the module for 15 credits (MIT3110) or for 20 credits (MIT3210).

If you are taking the module for 20 credits (MIT3210) you can either do a second essay, on a different subject from the first, or another logo or packaging design, with critique.

If you can't find an essay question you like, see me and we will work out another.

Note that if you have taken Graphics I, either as MIT3109 or MIT3209, you must choose different essay titles and subject areas from those you wrote on that module.

All essays must be presented with a bibliography of the material that you have read in preparation for the essay - the essay mark will be affected if it is absent! You are expected to read material both in printed form and on the web.

Be aware of the rules against plagiarism. Refer to the student handbook for the section on plagiarism and read the guide to presenting essays. There are severe penalties if you plagiarise!

Essays should be approximately 2000 words, excluding bibliography and notes, but can be longer if you wish.

Marking Criteria

The things I shall be looking for when marking the essay are available as a Word file.

1. What can we learn about graphical communication from studying children's art and design?
2. Computers never lie. Should this also apply to computer-generated graphics?
3. Discuss the issues of publishing pictures that have been altered using a computer.
4. "The greatest thing is to get the true picture - whatever it is" (Winston Churchill).
   Discuss with computer manipulaton of pictures in mind as well as other forms of picture.
5. 'Too much detail confuses rather than enlightens'. Relate this view to presenting information or ideas graphically.
6. Pictograms can communicate everything to everyone. Can they?
7. Sexism, race and age in pictograms should always be avoided. Should they?
8. 'I wasn't aware that road or building signs needed to be designed. I thought they just sort of happened'. Discuss.
9. 'Take sex out of the visual imagery of advertising and there would be no advertising'. Discuss this in relation to printed advertisements.
   You can limit discussion to one branch of advertising, e.g. magazines, newspapers or advertising hoardings.
10. Compare the visual role of men and women in printed adverts.
    You can limit discussion to one branch of advertising, e.g. magazines, newspapers or advertising hoardings.
11. Assess the role of colour in printed advertisements.
12. 'The typography of a printed advertisement is as important as the picture'. Discuss.
13. 'Letters are the clothes that words wear' (Erik Spiekermann in Typomania, from BBC2 series Into Print 1990). Discuss in relation to the use of type in printed advertisements.
    The video can be borrowed from Mike's Office
14. 'To be simple is the end, not the beginning of design' (C. Voysey, 1893).
    Discuss in relation to the design of graphics-based material.