Ben’s Critical Study essay film is a deep dive into branding and sport, particularly football and rugby league where issues of gentrification, class and north/ south divides have become prominent issues. Ben looks at the increasing sense of disparity between these sports as popular forms against their increasing commodification and corporatisation, particularly through branding and visual identity. This study supports the studio work Ben produced in rebranding a rugby league team from his hometown.

Hollie Wilson explores the potential of physical model-making both as a form of graphic illustration as well as within the film industry in particular. She considers whether these physical and tactile skills are still in demand and current in the context of virtual and computer-aided forms of three-dimensional making and asks whether the audience grasps the importance of the physical object.

Ella’s essay film montages images from a number of varied sources in an attempt to trace ideas around female hysteria, empowerment and particularly around moral panics about witchcraft. She intersperses these with typographic inter-titles and quotes that make clear some of her preoccupations in her studio work.

George’s essay film investigates the role of graphic designer as collector, looking at various artists and designers who have famously become inveterate collectors as well as exploring the psychological and social aspects of the need to collect pieces of the world.

Nick’s Critical Study essay film is a critical overview of the emerging digital technologies of XR, including such as AR and VR and their relationship to both graphic design and marketing. Nick’s film is the result of his ongoing interest in technology generally and in particular how to use these as generative tools to be used as part of his design process.

Oli Wright talks us through his projects in his final term of the Graphic Design course, ranging from his book that celebrates the often-overlooked patterns of lichen on rocks, through to his branding of a wooden lodge in the Yorkshire Dales and his work designing a music cover for a new artist Rohan Young.

Jamie Smith’s film essay looks into the often close relationships between graphic design and the film industry, paying particular attention to designers who are involved in ‘world-building’ through the design of props and ephemera for film as well as the relationship between the poster and the film.

Stephen Slevin-Smith explores both his own practice and the work of others in his film essay about contemporary concept art.

Richard Sharp’s Critical Study looks at the development of his work around creating motion graphics that animate the Periodic Table and his attempts to animate pictograms and icons of various sporting events in anticipation of the Paris Olympics in 2024.

Sam Pickering’s Critical Study essay film is a wide-ranging montage of science-fiction images from popular culture, examining our fascination for space and particular around utopian ideas of space-travel. His film reflects on and contextualises his work on Project Xanadu that is a speculation on future space travel and colonisation.

Taylor’s Critical Study is concerned with inclusive graphic design, examining how many corporate interests have co-opted notions of diversity in their marketing campaigns. Taylor quotes from the new book Extra Bold and talks through a number of fascinating typographic case studies that raise questions about so-called ‘cause washing’.

Megan questions the power of graphic design to change the world for the better, faced with a number of what seems insurmountable problems. In particular she looks at new campaigns around veganism and new plant-based diets as well as analysing what has been called ‘subtle activism’.

Wambui takes a long and considered look at the marketing of coffee, looking at its representation both in terms of branding and within popular culture generally. Importantly Wambui has also interviewed coffee farmers in Africa about their side of the story and used these stories to help her brand a new sustainable coffee product.

Ellie's essay film is a montage from various sources examining the representation of northerness in popular visual culture as it informs her own studio practice.

Tabitha’s Critical Study essay film explores how menstruation has been historically represented and questions feminism’s failure to find new ways of portraying this important issue. This study supports Tabitha’s own playful campaign for women’s sanitary products.

Harrison’s essay film attempts to define notions of machine-led creativity and asks whether the machine will be able to supplant human creativity through the use of sophisticated algorithms and machine learning. Harrison is fascinated by the possibilities of these technologies and has sought to both portray and analyse these new forms.

Ella’s initial Critical Study focuses on representations of femininity across a range of forms from surrealist photography to Hollywood cinema and the essay film challenges the viewer to think of themslves as complicit in the act of confirming the so-called ‘male gaze’.

Archie Hunton’s Critical Study asks the question about art’s ability to both reflect and evoke heightened and altered psychological states, using a number of varied case studies, from cinema, immersive technologies and photography to attempt to understand the haptic and sensual nature of these media forms.

Ellie Jones’s Critical Study essay film explores a generational sense of nostalgia through pop cultural forms. She is, as she says, aware that she looks back nostalgically on a time that she never lived through and she examines how they sense of looking backwards was the result of Generation Xer’s lack of belief in the future, shown through the pop music and fashion of the eighties and early nineties.

Jamie Morling’s Critical Study film explores the representation of the northern working class through an analysis of a wide range of case studies, including Ken Loach’s Kes, Benefits Street and the documentary photography of Chris Killip.

Becca Godfrey’s essay film investigates the notion of collaboration within design practices. She interviews a range of fellow students about their experiences in collaborating with each other and contextualises this with a number of other voices commenting on the difficulties and pleasures of teamwork. It’s a particular apposite time to explore these issues perhaps with the enforced isolation of the last two years.

Connor’s Critical Study examines the representation of queerness through graphic forms, in particular the Pride flag, through zine publications as well as the pioneering graphic activism of Act Up. Connor sketches an historical overview and provides a number of fascinating lesser-known case studies to support him in his argument.

Jed’s essay film is an abstract and elliptical multiscreen commentary on suburbia and consumerism, attempting to also depict the darker forces at work in these areas. Jed uses footage from a number of different sources, including archival advertising as well as directors like David Lynch whose work peers beneath the shiny surfaces of postwar suburbia.

Abin in his final Critical Study takes us on the journey of his evolution as a graphic designer, from his childhood in Kerala to his three years [interrupted by the pandemic in Leeds on the Graphic Design course. He traces his emerging interest in motion graphics of all kinds.

Jade talks about a wide range of music videos and pop promos in her Critical Study, looking at a history of the form in support of her own studio work producing a pop promo using abstract mark-making in a way that echoes the work of such as Len Lye.

Declan's initial Critical Study essay film is a wide-ranging look at a range of issues coming out of his studio work, including notions of collecting, typologies and the politics of football. 

Archie's initial Critical Study essay film stems from working in a pub and noticing both the branding within the environment, as well as the pub's regular habitues. Archie goes on to question the morality and ethics of documentary representation, particularly within photography.