Unit Synopsis
This unit will introduce you to fundamental principles and elements of visual design and how these can be applied in digital environments. You will develop an understanding of design as a visual language, become immersed in design thinking, and become proficient in visual communication for digital production. As you develop skills with industry-standard software tools such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop, you will work individually and collaboratively to create innovative solutions to design problems.
Details
| Level | Undergraduate |
|---|---|
| Unit Level | 1 |
| Credit Points | 6 |
| Student Contribution Band | SCA Band 4 |
| Fraction of Full-Time Student Load | 0.125 |
| Pre-requisites or Co-requisites |
There are no pre-requisites for the unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework). |
| Class Timetable | View Unit Timetable |
| Residential School | No Residential School |
Unit Availabilities from Term 1 - 2026
Term 2 - 2026 Profile
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Assessment Tasks
| Assessment Task | Weighting |
|---|---|
| 1. Practical and Written Assessment | 30% |
| 2. Practical and Written Assessment | 70% |
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).
Past Exams
All University policies are available on the Policy web site, however you may wish to directly view the following policies below.
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of policies are available on the Policy web site .
Term 2 - 2025 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 75.00% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 20% response rate.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Source: Informal discussion with students
More hands-on use of Adobe Firefly AI tools
Subject to issues of equity across on-campus and online students, integrate AI image production into assessable exercises, while retaining a focus on foundational design skills.
Due to Adobe licensing issues, Firefly was not used in class, except for demonstration purposes. Other, freely available tools were used for new AI-related exercises.
Source: Student Unit and Teaching Evaluation
Expectations could have been clearer
Remove optional exercises and ensure there are practical tasks relating to new content on AI tools.
Exercises were revised and new, more prescriptive AI-related tasks were introduced.
Source: SUTE survey response
Exploration of AI tools took up time that could be used in self-critique of traditional design output.
Revise and streamline AI-related exercises.
In Progress
On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:
- apply fundamental principles and elements of visual design in digital environments
- communicate effectively with others in the process of design and presentation
- develop innovative visual design solutions which combine form and function
- create visual designs using digital technologies and industry-standard software tools
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • |
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | • | • | • | • |
| 2 - Problem Solving | • | • | • | • |
| 3 - Critical Thinking | • | • | • | |
| 4 - Information Literacy | • | |||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | • | • | • | |
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 10 | |
| 1 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||
| 2 - Practical and Written Assessment | • | • | • | • | • | ||||||