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Degree Project

Level 6

In this final unit, you will apply all the learning throughout stages 4,5,6 to create a distinctive piece of work for your degree project. The purpose of your degree project is to allow you to identify opportunities successfully in your specialist subject area to promote and to develop your career.

Through research, you will independently identify and/or generate innovative opportunities within your specialist subject area. Your portfolio will consist of a series of outcomes that showcase your knowledge, and your key attributes and skills as a reflective creative practitioner.

You will be expected to consider the theoretical and professional contexts of your exploration. It is important that your work is contemporary, innovative, and representative of its target audience and industry sector.

Your degree project is an opportunity to establish your future thinking and/or to develop a sustainable new business opportunity.

Indicative Syllabus (Dependant on course studied)
Creative research methods
Proposal development
Experimentation and development of ideas and practice
Concept development
Business planning
Visual communication
Presentation skills

Critical Reflection and Self-Management

LO 1: Engaging with practice: Propose, design and create outcomes that showcase your knowledge, and your key attributes and skills as a reflective creative practitioner.

LO 2: Research & analysis: Demonstrate your ability to plan, develop, analyse, evaluate, and interpret relevant research.

LO 3: Experimentation & innovation: Independently identify and/or generate innovative opportunities within the selected specialist subject area. Get Instant Answers to this problem!

LO 4: Personal & professional connectivity: Successfully identify opportunities to promote and develop your career through the production of a personal development plan (PDP), self-management and critical reflection.

LO 5: Realisation & communication: Propose, design and create outcomes that showcase your knowledge, and your key attributes and skills as a reflective creative practitioner.

Supervision Meetings:
You are expected to show work to your supervisor at supervision meetings (tutorials) throughout the Unit
Each supervision meeting (tutorial) is an opportunity for formative feedback

For your Part 1: Project Proposal you will submit a 3,000-word (+/- 10%) Degree Project Proposal, which consists of:

Project Proposal (approx. 2,000 words)
Brief to Self (approx. 500 words)
Critical Self-Reflection on your Research Approach (approx. 500 words).
PROJECT PROPOSAL (approx. 2,000 words):
In your project proposal you should:

Identify and propose a possible opportunity within the market/your industry sector that is personally interesting to you and is relevant to your career.
Evidence this opportunity by first conducting secondary research to investigate, record, and analyse topics/areas of interest within your subject.
Determine the key challenges, and who the key audiences or consumers are (demographic/psychographic) in relation to your identified opportunity - you could use PESTELE/SWOT models for this.
Propose the opportunity using academic and practitioner skills and tools from the unit (and what you have learned in years 1 and 2 of your degree) to capture, record, and report on the opportunity you will take forward.

Apply what you have learned previously such as bootcamp resources, academic and research skills, academic theories, frameworks, and methodologies.
Aim to include (all in relation to your opportunity):
Specific Macro and Micro Trends (using quality / verifiable statistical sources)
Specific Critical Contexts & Contemporary Issues (using peer-reviewed academic resources - articles/texts)
Specific Industry / Market Sector Insights (using financial/business reports/verifiable news & statistics)
Specific Audience / Consumer Behaviours, Patterns, & Possibilities (using academic resources and verifiable sector reports)
Your Proposal will be used by you and your tutors to refer to when developing Part 2 which aims to develop and carry out the opportunity you have uncovered.

BRIEF TO SELF (approx. 500 words):
Prepare a 1-page brief that you will use throughout the unit to ensure you are always working to the brief you set (for example see D&AD). The brief will allow you to develop and practice consistent, clear communication about your project.
CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION ON YOUR RESEARCH APPROACH (approx. 500 words):
Using a reflective model such as Kolb's or Rolfe's critically reflect on how Part 1 of the Degree Project is helping you evolve and shape your personal and professional development. Give specific examples and specific future goals related to Part 1 of your project work.

PROJECT PROPOSAL SUGGESTED FORMAT:
The Big Idea:
Your opportunity explained in one statement sentence (e.g., the Elevator Pitch/the Mission Statement/the Strapline)

Introduction to the Opportunity Identified:
What is the opportunity and what aims, objectives, and challenges are you resolving with it? The ‘What', ‘Why', ‘Why Now', and ‘Who'.

Background Research on the Opportunity Identified:
A formal and organised summary of your (desk) research of relevant literature and resources. Identify the critical context and gaps in your topic area/market/sector for where your idea can exist. Include Macro and Micro Trends, Industry/Market/Sector Insights, PESTELE, Audience/Consumer Behaviours, Patterns, and Possibilities. This can include diagrams such as a positioning map/competitor position matrix, empathy map, or brand prism.

Key Insights & Supporting Evidence:
An organised summary of key takeaways with supporting evidence from your research. Supporting evidence includes visual and written explanations/research that help us to understand the main deliverable/s. Your key insights are the important things that you will focus on throughout the project to ensure the big idea can come to life. You can use a business canvas model if relevant for your chosen area.

The Proposition for making your Big Idea a Reality:
What is possible or next for the opportunity you identified?
What are you proposing to do?
Recommendations and possibilities to resolve the issues/fill a gap in the market.
Outline your target audience, viable message, and the medium of communication.
Offer a mock-up/s of what the proposed idea could look like.

What do you propose to develop as your Main Deliverable/s? Main deliverables are the outputs in Part 2 that you can realistically execute yourself (or together with a creative team that you put together in which you are creative director) before the deadline.

What are the specific next steps that you will take in Part Two of the unit to deliver your Project? Complete a calendar template to explain how you will manage your project.

Key Project Challenges:
Explain what the anticipated key project challenges and barriers are. What aspects of the Big Idea or the Deliverables could these challenges negatively affect or impact upon? How do you specifically plan to overcome the challenges?

Research and development materials and evidence that can enhance your Proposal. (Appendices section is not counted in your word count)

For your Part 2: Final Project you will submit a 5,000-word (+/- 10%) Final Project, which consists of:
Main Project Deliverables and Supporting Evidence (3,500 words - Needs to be approved in discussion with your supervisor)
Research and Development Log (approx. 1,000 words)

Critical Self-Reflection on Personal & Professional Development (approx. 500 words)

MAIN PROJECT DELIVERABLES AND SUPPORTING EVIDENCE (approx. 3,500 words):
Main deliverables are the outputs in Part 2 that you can realistically execute yourself (or together with a creative team that you put together in which you are creative director) before the deadline.
Evolve your Project Proposal created in Part 1. Apply the knowledge and understanding developed from your key insights to inform the next steps of your project. Aim to address a clear opportunity in the market/sector/audience.

Conduct and demonstrate primary/field research to check the potential of your concept and set the parameters of your project through testing and experimentation.
Where applicable use branding/design/creative business management frameworks to illustrate and explain the basis of your concept. This analysis should be aligned with critical theory and will help to validate your proposed outputs.

Include a positioning statement that clearly and effectively communicates your concepts, the purpose of your concept, how it will be achieved, and how it adds value to the relevant industry.

Demonstrate practical project outputs that apply your knowledge of the market/sector/audience you have researched, to produce a Final Project in your specialist subject area.

Include supporting evidence throughout so that audiences (and your tutors) can understand your project.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT LOG (approx. 1,000 words):
Throughout Part 2 of the unit, you are required to keep a research and development log. This will document your research approach and methods applied alongside your problem-solving/creative processes and evidence of research and development in support of the concept you develop.

Use the research and development log to show your research, creative process(es), and development. Include:
A critical analysis of your research approach and methods used.
Key analytical insights that led to your solution.
How you developed the idea from insight to solution.
Alternative ideas you explored.
Hand sketches, prototypes, mock-ups.
Mood boards and other reference imagery.
You are required to bring this development log in for supervision meetings (tutorials) during Part 2. You will hand- in your final development log as part of your project submission of Part 2.

CRITICAL SELF-REFLECTION ON PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT (approx. 500 words):
Using a reflective model such as Kolb's or Rolfe's critically reflect on how Part 2 of the Degree Project has challenged you and helped you shape your personal and professional development. Ensure you reflect on challenges in your research, elements that went wrong, or any aspects that did not turn out as you hoped or expected, and say why. Give specific examples, positive or negative, and specific future goals related to Part 2 of your project work, such as how the project might live on after you graduate.