Typography and Graphic Communication Research Degrees

Research degrees involve independent study under the direction of a supervisor. Students will be registered initially for a higher degree and later transferred to either PhD or MPhil. The minimum period of full-time study for a PhD is three years. A full-time MPhil can be completed in two years. Either degree can be pursued on a part-time basis.

A good first degree (equivalent to at least 2.1 Honours in the UK) is normally required for both MPhil and PhD study, although other qualifications or industrial or professional experience may be considered. Applicants whose first degree is not closely related to Typography & Graphic Communication, or who lack the relevant theoretical background, may be required to undertake preparatory work. This may be a formal requirement to successfully complete the MA (Res) Typography & Graphic Communication or a less formal arrangement to follow parts of the undergraduate programme.

All research students have a research advisory group to monitor and advise on their work, in addition to individual supervisors. We teach research methods by providing tutorials with supervisors, a doctoral training programme organised at Faculty level, and by encouraging participation in postgraduate research seminars. Each student  presents their work once a year at one of these seminars.

Below are listed areas or more specific topics that reflect the interests of staff. These give an idea of our approaches and orientations, but enquiries or applications need not be restricted to those in the list.

• Empirical investigations of typographic and graphic material.

• Legibility of printed or screenbased material

• Perceptual judgments in design

• Research with specific user groups (e.g. literacy problems, dyslexia, older readers, visual impairment)

• History of lettering

• History of informal printing, lettering and production methods

• Reconstruction of printing and lettering methods

• Isotype / Vienna Method, 1925-1970

• Designing information in the 19th century

• Development of information design in the 20th century

• The interplay of typography and politics

• Graphic representations of place in 20th century publishing

• British design and publishing during and after the Second World War

• 19th-century printing history, in particular colour printing and printed ephemera

• Typography in film

• Typeface design in the phototypesetting period

• Influence of composing practices on typeforms

• Designing type for cross-media publication

• Role of type design in improving literacy

• Proprietary typefaces in corporate identity

• Aspects of the design of non-Latin typefaces (e.g. Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, Indian, Asian)

• Relationship between typefaces and calligraphic practice

• Type design for vernacular newspaper typography

• The design of complex texts, especially works of reference

• Design of children's reading and information books

• Prescription and practice in everyday graphic language (e.g. in letter-writing)

• Typography and language

• Design of instructional text

• Graphic support for wayfinding and graphic representations of spatial experience

• Graphic representations of risk perception

• Data visualisation and diagramming

• Public sector communications

• The design of text-intensive documents in digital media

• Design for multi-channel communications or interfaces

• Graphic explanation for specific user groups (e.g. children, poor readers)

• Publishers' design processes

• Design by non-experts

• The interplay of design and print production

• Design education and training

• Information architecture

• Genre studies