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Four stand-up pouches of Broc Star dark chocolate broccoli-coated peanuts, two in white packaging and two in black packaging, each featuring a green lightning bolt and UK flag symbol on the bottom right.

Communication Design Research Group

The Communication Design Research and Knowledge Exchange group comprises academics and practitioners from a wide range of backgrounds spanning graphic design, branding, packaging, digital/motion/animation, illustration, print and editorial, art-direction and web design.

Our primary aim is to engage in forward-facing and future proof contemporary design practices that challenge conventional thinking, and deliver a diverse range of applications for communication design, including sustainable and ethical practices, and championing diversity and inclusivity.

We encourage experimental approaches to making work, using ideas and creative thinking, observation and research of subject matter, and responding to, but not limited to, industry requirements.

We excel at the ‘industry collaborative project’, engaging directly with a diverse range of partner organisations to explore real-world experiences and collaborative opportunities. We are highly industry focused, and our staff, students and courses have won countless national and international design and illustration awards.

Areas of focus

Ideas and creative thinking

IDEAS are at the heart of Communication and Design. We believe the very best ideas create meaningful interactions; and are the product of critical insight, creative expression, risk-taking and the accepting of failure as part of making new work and radical new ideas.

A positive contribution to the world

We work with subject matter that challenges norms, and embraces diversity and inclusion. We work on projects concerned with ethics and design for change. We bring essential skills and ideas needed to face the challenges of the future.

Beauty and delight

We believe that communication design serves many purposes including to record, instruct, persuade, and to inform. We believe that it should also entertain, empower and provide delightful and beautiful experiences. Design can and should improve our lives, and design that brings joy and pleasure is essential in our lives, communities and wider society.

Our group

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News and events

  • A group of people in a brightly lit room look at colorful prints and artwork displayed on a large wall grid during an exhibition or art event. Some carry tote bags and converse with each other.

    Andy Judd, Ampersand Brewery x Norwich University of the Arts (2025)

  • A group of people in blue coveralls sit around a long, white table covered with papers, tools, and art supplies in a spacious, well-lit room with wooden floors. One person in white sits at the head of the table.

    Christian Petersen, Spatial Ecologies pilot course (2024)

  • A curved digital display shows two panels: on the left, a black-and-white drawing of a rider on a galloping horse; on the right, a colorful, stylized illustration of a person riding a horse against a bright background.

    Dave Watson and Antony Barkworth Knight, Stable Visions (2024)

  • A black and white sketchbook spread featuring ink drawings of old stone buildings and towers. Handwritten notes and phrases are scattered around the sketches, blending text and art in a creative, layered composition.

    Glyn Brewerton, ‘Church Going’: explorations of print and collage to record unused and repurposed churches in Norfolk (2025)

  • An open book displays an intricate illustration of people gathered around a fire, with detailed patterns and a red ribbon bookmark lying across the pages.

    Neil Bousfield, commissioned engravings for Cicero: Selected Letters & Speeches (2025)

Research Groups