{"id":6663,"date":"2026-09-01T13:42:26","date_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:42:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=6663"},"modified":"2026-09-01T13:42:26","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T13:42:26","slug":"are-you-ready-to-study-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/are-you-ready-to-study-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you ready to study design?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AYR-general-banner.png\" width=\"650\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We have a new <a href=\"https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=101279\" >Are you Ready to Study Design?<\/a> site.<\/p>\n<p>This brings together some of the most frequently asked questions about design at the OU and it tries to give students a bit more of a feel for what it\u2019s like to study design at a distance at the OU.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IpIz5e5rbDw?si=z0OlQrpXWaHFjmGs\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I think this is my favourite video we produced last year &#8211; mainly because it\u2019s go so many student voices in there that all talk about what a university degree is still really good for &#8211; changing how you think about the world, as well as how you have agency and can make change in the world.<\/p>\n<p>I also like because it\u2019s their authentic voices. These same students have also told us what could be made better about our courses in the past and that has almost always led to them changing. Yup &#8211; we do take our own medicine\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The other thing it hints at is how students are encouraged (even expected!) to think like that from the start &#8211; regardless of where they\u2019ve come from, what education they\u2019ve experienced, what their circumstances are. Having a completely Open Entry policy is still one of the most amazing things about the OU and it constantly makes you need to do better teaching.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, that\u2019s still the thing that makes me do this education stuff &#8211; as a teacher when you see the many different things that student take from the teaching material (and sometimes the opposite of it!), that\u2019s still<\/p>\n<p>So, if you know of anyone thinking about studying design or wondering what to do next after getting exam results, then send them a link: <a href=\"https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=101279\" >https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=101279<\/a><\/p>\n<p>So, if you want to get a feel for what it\u2019s like to start right at the beginning, why not <a href=\"https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=101279&amp;amp;cmid=62408\" >learn to draw by starting with scribbling<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Or, if you want to dive in and <a href=\"https:\/\/learn1.open.ac.uk\/course\/view.php?id=101279&amp;cmid=62427\" >explore the different qualifications we offer then take a look<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Visual design<\/h3>\n<p>The look and feel is part of the new visual identity being created by OU Design colleague Sejal Changede and I like how it\u2019s playing with a lot of historical and different context forms and shapes. Mind you, I\u2019m biased because I\u2019m a sucker for icons:<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/bdes-visual-identity-icons-01.png\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Delicious, chewy, tasty, and zesty. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>But the last words has to go to Nicole Lotz :<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is really important to bring design thinking into this world\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We have a new Are you Ready to Study Design? site. This brings together some of the most frequently asked questions about design at the OU and it tries to give students a bit more of a feel for what it\u2019s like to study design at a distance at the OU. I think this is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6664,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-education","category-design-engagement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6663"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6681,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6663\/revisions\/6681"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}