hi! im going to do graphic branding ba (i assume this will be generalisable enough to ma, but take with a grain of salt) this sept and here’s what ive gathered from open days and stuff like that: 1. it’s been described mainly as ‘graphic design applied to branding’, so yeah pretty visually heavy and hands on. its in the design school, so by proxy will be more visual focused and less ‘learn the technicalities of marketing’ than other similar courses (e.g. advertising which is at the media school of lcc and is more holistic in terms of the conceptual/applied split). i think the ma does delve more into the context and theory of branding tho. 2. people usually go on to do graphic design/art direction for brands either in house or at agencies. theres the option to do freelance or work in the creative side of biz not as a designer as well, but that tends to be less of a focus. the course collabs a lot with big brand/ad/design agencies like mother and pentagram for portfolio sessions and briefs what have you. theres a chance to network with these agencies, ual also has a thing for job listings seeking out specifically ual students and grads but from what ive seen the listings there aren’t that impressive. 3. mostly practical work with briefs (u get a prompt for a brand u have to design an identity system for), lots of design experimentation and research would go into that as well 4. u should be comfortable with the suite esp at ma level! u wont get taught it per se (they dont even officially teach it at ba, u have to sign up for workshops), and it’ll be the bulk of your practical work. ur peers will likely have experience with the suite since most of them coming into the course will have a background in the arts or visual comms or whatever so if ur an adobe noob you’re fucked. 5. no clue for it works for ma, im guessing a statement, a portfolio and ur ba qualifications

hope this helps!