Our Head of Program, Alexander Tibus, is talking about studying graphic design at Berlin International and answering the most frequently asked questions about our program. Check out the interview below.
The BA Graphic Design & Visual Communication program provides students with the skills and specialized knowledge to develop creative, responsible solutions in the design context. Projects include a range of analog and digital media. Amongst others, our students design apps, animations, augmented and virtual reality scenarios, books and magazines, campaigns, brand identities, posters, and websites.
Hi, I am Alexander Tibus and I am the BA Graphic Design & Visual Communication program head.
We are a truly international university. Our students and staff are from all around the world. Those people make Berlin International special. We have a strong community here and there is a ratio of about one professor or lecturer for 18 students only. This provides immediate and personal contact between the students, professors and lecturers. Individuals from all over the world meet here on campus. BI offers that common ground to come together, exchange ideas and experience our joint development.
Studying with us provides an education that relates to the real life. We teach practice-driven, we work with a range of external partners in our course projects and we thoroughly prepare our students for their professional life after graduation. We offer a personalized education with passionate lecturers and professors and a great international student population.
We offer a thorough graphic design education and transfer those skills into digital design. Our students gain professional skills that reflect nowadays creative industries’ needs. Through personal tutoring and immediate contact, we are able to support our students’ individual interests, their individual creativity and foster their specific talents.
Our very international student population enables us to also look into visual communication from different perspectives and to get to know new approaches to design. The BA Graphic Design & Visual Communication program includes a unique course in which the students practice cross-cultural design. They apply different script systems such as Arabic or Chinese, as well as others, to create intercultural communication.
The bachelor program educates for the real life. Nearly all of our lecturers are practitioners who run their own design studios and work in agencies and as freelance designers. They bring their own professional practice into the classroom.
Our courses are practice-driven, and the students are working on applied design projects. We work with real clients starting in the second semester already, and students can connect with professionals from the creative industries.
Just recently, we introduced the new course, employability and entrepreneurship, to the last study semester. It prepares our students to successfully enter professional life. The course equips them with a personal strategy, a proper portfolio and their own professional website.
For career perspectives after graduation, there are numerous options. Design studios and agencies, publishers, and start-ups, particularly in the area of app development, service design and web-related design. Graphic design graduates often work as art directors, brand designers and UX designers. Some go into editorial design in the book and magazine sector or go and work as information designers, motion designers and illustrators.
Berlin hosts a number of game design developers, a field which is now becoming increasingly popular with our graphic design students. Two of our recent graduates started to work in the film industry during their studies already and want to pursue that in the future. Some of our graduates also study master's programs after their bachelor's, in various fields such as brand management, fields of different design and marketing.
On the program, we work together with a range of corporation partners here in Berlin. These are smaller and mid-sized start-ups. We already work with a Berlin-based sneaker brand, a company that produces 3D printers, but we also regularly work with well-established partners, such as The Berliner magazine (formerly Exberliner), which is Berlin’s largest cultural magazine in the English language.
Berlin is a city of graphic design and visual communication. It provides non-stop inspiration. You can see cultural posters on the streets, sometimes with outstanding design quality. You can see street art nearly everywhere. Besides numerous fine art galleries and museums, there are excellent exhibitions and conferences for graphic design and visual communication. For example, the Kunstbibliothek, which we work together with quite a lot, hosts one of the world’s largest graphic design collections and of course, also makes that accessible to the public.
As a UNESCO City of Design, Berlin demonstrates an enormous number of design studios, agencies, publishers, and other creative companies. Berlin is an international metropolis with many opportunities to meet new people and connect. It is worldwide famous for its cultural life and nightlife, which is very popular with students. Compared to other German cities, it is still quite an affordable place and there is this sense of freedom in Berlin that allows you to unfold yourself.
The bachelor’s program in Graphic Design & Visual Communication described in three words only would be prospering, motivating, and supportive. |
Thank you for reading our article about studying at Berlin International from our professor, Alexander Tibus. If you are interested in pursuing your studies in Berlin, take a look at the BA Graphic Design & Visual Communication program we offer.
Feel free to reach out to our Admissions Team at any time via application@berlin-international.de.
