About the Program
Graphic Design Media has been an extremely popular program at Melville Senior High School since starting as a Specialist Program in 2012. Students are guided by experienced digital media teachers utilising world-class facilities and industry standard hardware and software such as iMacs, interactive tablets, the Adobe CC Suite and multiple 3D printers. The teaching staff have excellent networks through their own industry experience, along with a wide range of institutional partnerships including Murdoch University, Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, and the Black Swan Theatre.
Design and Media are huge growth industries as the world seeks for creative people to solve creative problems. The Graphic Design Media program leads directly to a variety of ATAR pathway courses in Year 11 and 12, including Design, Visual arts, and Media Production and Analysis. Melville Senior High School students consistently rank amongst the top in the State in these courses and find the program enables a rare connection between creative expression and learning. Unlike other secondary schools, Melville Senior High School offers Graphic Design Media from Year 7, ensuring that creative students are fostered and mentored from the very beginning of their secondary education.
Throughout Years 7 to 10, Graphic Design Media students are given Master Class opportunities where professionals from the industry work with the students to extend and enhance their learning experience. These professional designers and media makers lecture and hold workshops during the program, coming from fields as diverse as fashion, printmaking, animation, architecture, interior design, illustration, photography, film making and industrial design.
Projects throughout the course are drawn from exercises aimed at increasing core skills as well as giving relevant industry context. Over the course of the year, students normally undertake one major project from each of the four major contexts: spatial design, 2 dimensional design, film and time-based media; and interactive/ photographic media.