Why I chose Graphic Design at Norwich University of the Arts

Why I chose Graphic Design at Norwich University of the Arts

Hi Eunseo Jang! Can you tell us about your creative practice?

Hi, I’m a second-year BA (Hons) Graphic Design student from Seoul. I’m interested in brand identity and creative direction that make a visual system feel coherent. I enjoy moving between strategy, storytelling and making.

Why did you choose to study graphic design at Norwich University of the Arts?

I first came across Norwich through its reputation for graphic design and its students’ success at D&AD. What persuaded me was how generous people were when I reached out to the university with questions; they made a genuine effort to explain both the course and the city. Moving country was already a large enough experiment, so I wanted to do it somewhere that felt both welcoming and ambitious.

 What inspired you to choose graphic design at Norwich?

I wanted a course that would challenge my thinking as much as my making. Norwich University of the Arts offered live briefs, collaboration across courses and room to experiment, while still expecting ideas to have a clear reason for existing. That connected to the kind of designer I wanted to become

What has helped you adjust to university life and settle into Norwich as an international student?

I settled in by building a small life outside my deadlines: walking around the city, trying new cafés, visiting museums and galleries and making time for whatever I happened to be curious about. Those routines gradually made Norwich feel less like somewhere I had moved to study and more like somewhere I lived. Finding kind people who made me feel cared for helped enormously too.

What’s been your favourite part of living and studying here?

My favourite part of Norwich is the balance between calm and creative energy. A walk by the river on a sunny day, usually beside a family of swans, is difficult to improve upon.

I also love the conversations that happen when you are surrounded by people making very different things. They often lead me to ideas I would not have reached alone. Norwich’s independent food places have also taken an arguably unreasonable share of my time.

What’s your advice for international students choosing Norwich University of the Arts?

Studying abroad teaches you as much about yourself as it does about your subject. Think not only about what you want to study, but about the kind of place in which you want to grow.

Norwich has enough to keep discovering without being so overwhelming that you lose the space to listen to yourself. Ask for help, stay curious and say yes before you feel entirely ready!

Why is it important for students to take part in opportunities such as the D&AD New Blood competition 2026?

D&AD was an opportunity to apply what we’d been learning on the course to a real brand, audience and creative challenge. With our lecturers always willing to challenge and support us, and by working across graphics courses, each of us noticed gaps and possibilities the others might have missed. Together, we kept pushing the work whenever it became tempting to call it finished.

Receiving a Yellow Pencil was surreal, but the most valuable part was learning how much further an idea can travel through honest conversation, shared responsibility and repeated refinement. It made the creative industry feel less distant and showed me that student work can already have a life beyond the classroom.