What is Communication Design and How to Choose the Right Department?

Hi again, today as a newly graduated unemployed person I want to talk about my department which is Communication Design!

I don't have any idea about other counties' exam system for applying universities but in Turkey the exams are just finished and students are waiting for their results so I thought talking about one department deeply would help them.

Well, Communication Design or Visual Communication Design (they are representing the same thing usually) is under Communication Faculty or somecases Art&Design Faculty. Again I don't have enough information about other countries but in Turkey some universities is requiring a talent exam in order to apply this department. My university (Bahçeşehir University) wasn't expecting such a thing so we can say that talent exam is not a mandatory.

Why I Chose Communication Design?
Because I like designing! I am not the most creative person in the world but I love designing, organizing, coloring etc. So back then, when I was in high school I was thinking about architecture, photography or graphic design. I started a research about universities and their departments. I was pretty sure that I would like to come back to my country so I only checked Turkish universities.

This would be an important information for my Turkish readers: I was not in Turkey during High School so I didn't take the usual university exam in Turkey. I applied with my IGCSE exams as a foreign student.

I found a few that I would like to go. They were Sabancı University, Bilgi University and Bahçeşehir University. (They are all in Istanbul)

First I tried my chance in Sabancı University (because as a university it was the best of these 3) but they were resisting about giving scholarship and I didn't want to pay too much money so I deleted Sabancı University from my wishlist :)

And then I started a communication with Bilgi and Bahçeşehir at the same time. Both universities were so kind to a foreigner student and they were willing to give scholarships right away. They were both offering education in English but the only difference was Bilgi University requested a talent exam too. Back then I knew digital tools like photoshop but I was really not ready to hand draw some objects and of course there was a chance that they would reject me. So as a coward :) I didn't take the talent exam and end up with Bahçeşehir University.

I can say that I didn't regret at all.

I loved my department, classes and teachers. Everybody at school (at least stuff members) know English perfectly and they were so professional.

Let me show you the classes I took until I graduate.

• Communications Skills and Academic Reporting I & II (this is a must course, it is so boring but if you don't miss classes you won't have problems)
• Photography
• Introduction to Computer and Information Technologies (basically they teach you photoshop)
• Basic Design I & II (these were all students' nightmare, we cried during the juries but we surivived at the end. Not all of us tho there were some students left the department because of Basic Design courses. Down below you can see a few works we did in Basic Design.)

As you can see from the examples we learned about colors, composition, design rules etc.

• Drawing (Don't be afraid of this class even if you are not good at drawing because they teach you and they don't expect you to be the next Picasso.)
• Computer for Artistic and Communicative Purposes
• Art, Culture and Society (One of the best theory classes)
• Introduction to Animation (This class is a good opportunity to learn traditional animation)
• Theories of Media and Communication
• Sociology (One more boring must course)
• Turkish Language and Literature I & II (Just for foreing students)
• History of Graphic Design (Theory)
• Typography (You can check a few examples from my classworks)

• Moving Image
• Essentials of Psychology
• Contemporary Video Practices (We learned how to make main titles and trailers for movies/TV series, I think it was really cool)
• Remediation and Technoculture (This was the sound design class)
• Graphic Design (One of the best classes in my opinion. Again you can see some examples below)

• Introduction to Multimedia
• Basics of Web Design (This course doesn't include coding part of web design but there is an elective course called Advanced Web Design where you can learn about coding too)
• Interactive Arts and Design
• Atatürk's Principles and History of Turkish Republic I & II (This is a must course in every university in Turkey)
• Graduation Project I & II
• Summer Trainings (30 days of internship)

These were the must courses that I had to take and I had too many different choices for electives. With the help of elective courses you can become more professional on a desired area.

What you should be careful about while chosing university?

Check the desired program's course program.
This is really important because almost every single university I have checked had the communication design department but not all of them had that much practical classes. In my opinion theorical classes won't help students that much to become a real designer. So Bahçeşehir University was the best university in case of practical classes.

Education language is important!
Especially if you are going to choose a different country for university. Some departments say their education is in English but sometimes if there is no enough foreigners they keep using other languages during classes. So you have to make sure that they only use English (or other desired languages) for education.

Check the univeristy building's environment.
Both for social and living purposes. Some of the universites I checked were so far away from the city center (even in Istanbul). Make sure you have a place to stay and have fun.

Check for internship and job opportunities.
Some of the universities don't help students about their internships and job interviews. So find one that can help and support you even after you graduate.

Don't forget:

You may not be able to choose the right department at your first year. Don't get sad. You are still so young and you will have too many opportunities in your life.

Make sure that the university years of your life are the best years :)

Love you all, take care!