Moving Image
Stories and how we tell them are at the core of human narrative. We exist in a world where the screen holds powerful cultural capital. Responding to developments in an ever-changing landscape, the BA Moving Image Design at NCAD offers a range of approaches at the nexus of traditional communication and the evolving world of digital media. This new and exciting programme encompasses the field of motion design in its many guises and encourages a creative and expressive approach to storytelling.
What will I study?
Students have the opportunity to explore a range of media and approaches, including various methods of animation, motion graphics, special FX, interaction, live action, dramatic and short-form documentary filmmaking. The programme is founded on strong design principles of research, content-generation and development, problem-identification and problem-solving. We value experimentation and thinking over ready-made and easily identifiable solutions, and we encourage processes that will develop our students’ individual style and voice.
Year 1
The first year experience for BA students at NCAD begins with a foundational semester of interdisciplinary Art and Design creative practice and research. In the second semester all Design students undertake 6 weeks of projects spent within your chosen design department. This is to give you a working taste of your chosen discipline and/or those that you are interested in. The second half of Semester 2 introduces students to key process-es and practices in your chosen design discipline, encouraging the creative and critical development of a personal practice and introducing fundamental disciplinary design and technical methods.
Year 2
The focus in the second year is on developing a personal visual language and the skills necessary to translate this into successful Moving Image Design practice. You will focus on researching and defining a specific audience and/or subject while developing a market understanding through professional practice and collaboration.
Year 3: Studio+ & International
Studio+ is an optional year open to all Design students allowing you to engage with the world beyond NCAD by gaining practical work experience in the form of internships and industry placements on live commercial, social or community projects. Studio+ can also include a work placement abroad or a study abroad period through the Erasmus programme with internationally recognised design faculties partnered with NCAD. Students who choose Studio+ will complete a 4 year BA in Moving Image Design or a 4 year BA Moving Image Design (International).
Final Year
In the final year students are ready to develop their own programme of study, which reflects each individual’s skills and interests within the field of Moving Image Design. All work is underpinned by strong conceptual thinking and supported by detailed design research. Their studies will culminate in a substantial body of work for assessment and display at the Graduate Showcase, exhibitions and events. Each year is supported by a series of lectures by leading creative practitioners and theorists, collaborative interdisciplinary opportunities, live industry projects, field trips, and study visits.
How will I be assessed?
Coursework, essays, practical design projects and assessments take place at key points throughout the programme. Formal assessment results are issued at the end of each academic year.
Critical Cultures
A key component of your curriculum in every year is the study of Critical Cultures. This is where you study the connections between history, theory and practice in modern and contemporary contexts in order to become a critically engaged, reflective and effective practitioner.
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Opportunities after graduation
Our graduates will find employment in the fields of digital/graphic design and multi-media, the advertising sector, public sector bodies and cultural institutions, in television, film, online publishing and exhibition design. Our graduates will be leaders in their fields – creatives who work as lone-voice authors or as collaborators within multi-disciplinary teams, capable of organising and visualising data, designing identity, imagining and translating unusual and emerging worlds and concepts. They will be storytellers in the purest form. They will be sought after as content creators and curators for the growing and ever-diversifying social, cultural, business and informational sectors. Increasingly, graduates progress to further study at postgraduate level to refine their creative abilities and approach. The School of Design offers a range of innovative masters programmes, as well as a practice-based PhD programme.
Student & Graduate Stories
Daire Powell, BA Moving Image Design 2023
Design Competition Awards/Achievements
RSA Student Design Awards 2023 (Marketing Trust Award).
Institute of Designers in Ireland Graduate Award 2023 in Animation.
Briefly describe your design project?
The Friend, The Dove & The Deer is a conversational piece on the societal pressures and predetermined roles of individuals from contrasting life origins. This anthology film follows four characters, each in their own narratives, and how their experiences with the noise and pressured livelihood have impacted their mental state. A selection of media processes are used throughout the piece to convey the different perspectives of each narrative, mostly linking to forms of imagery inspired by childhood memory or pastimes.
I knew from the beginning of the project that I wanted to create a film that had completely original assets, so I decided to collaborate with my friend Fionn Brennan from Search Results, who composed the soundtrack, and my sister Caoimhe Powell, who was the designer of the wardrobe for the stop motion chapter in the film.
I had actually originally written each chapter of the story as individual short stories while I was having observational thoughts on public transport or in my room. As soon as we were told to think about our “topic” for our final graduation piece, I realised that these worlds and characters that I was creating had similar themes of pressures and societal influences. I was heavily inspired by the film “The House” by Emma De Swaef, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Paloma Baeza and Marc James Roels, which is a beautiful stop motion film that contains chapters of different stories with thematic links within those world, so I decided to combine my short stories into something larger and anthological.
The process of animation on this piece was definitely a struggle in the time that I had.
Overall, it probably took about 4-5 months to animate on top of the months I spent building the physical set and scenes in Blender prior. I feel as though I did give myself a bit too much work in the time that I had for production, especially while working on all the visuals alone, but I do believe putting myself into the project as much as I did helped as a learning curve for time management and was definitely worth it in the end.
Oonagh O’Brien, BA Moving Image Design and Visual Culture 2023
Design Competition Awards/Achievements
Institute of Designers in Ireland Graduate Award 2023 in Moving Image
Arts Thread Global Design Graduate Show 2023 - Shortlist
Aisling Carroll Scholarship MMT TCD 2023
Alternus Energy Sustainable Arts Initiative 2022 -
Out of The Box Thinking Award
Briefly describe your design project?
My video “I’m sorry for what I’ve done, forgive me for what I’ve yet to do” was a means of visually articulating thoughts that we all find difficult to share with others. Through animation sequences, visual and musical motifs, I aim to convey a sense of shame, isolation, and guilt that we all experience, but don't acknowledge. The project is entirely auto-ethnographic; my primary source of narrative material was drawn from a collection of video diary entries I began recording years ago.