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Graphic Design, Illustration and Product Design

eResources for Research

Databases are specialist search engines that search for quality information, such as journal articles, in specific subject areas.

For help searching contact your your Art & Creative Industries Librarians. Details on the Home page

Please note that all resources are provided for educational use only.

Practice makes perfect - where visual inspiration meets practical advice across the visual and creative disciplines. A trainer from Bloomsbury gives a demonstration on how to use Bloomsbury Applied Visual Arts. This video with captions has a duration of 14 minutes.

Video demo of how to use WGSN Fashion

This video demo by Roxanne from WGSN will explore how trends are forecast, using the design resources and other aspects of the platform including reports and catwalk collections. The video duration is 34 minutes.

Sway - Top resources for Graphic Design and Product Design

Journal articles

Click on the links below to access the e-journal titles. To access some e-journals off campus you may need to use your University email and password.

What are journals?

They are:Journals

  • like magazines but of a scholarly nature.
  • published at regular intervals.
  • contain articles on a variety of topics.
  • the articles are written by different authors.
  • in printed and electronic formats.

 

Why Should I use them?

You should use them in your studies because:

  • journal turnover time is much quicker than for a book.
  • using information from journals will keep you up to date and informed of new developments in your subject
  • journals articles are more specific than books.  They give you more detailed information in a more scholarly and concise format.
  • subject may not yet (or may never) be covered in books.
  • quality research - academic reputation - peer reviewed.

 

What is scholarly/peer reviewed?

You should use them in your studies because:

  • Written by a professional/expert, who is a specialist in the subject
  • Submitted to an editor, who then passes the work to other professionals or 'peers' for a critiques, the work is then passed back to the original writer for changes to be made before being published.
  • Longer articles, heavily text based.
  • Charts, tables, statistics and images.
  • Properly referenced with a list of references at the end of the article.

How to evaluate an article

"How do I know if the information I have found is relevant and/or appropriate?"

Basic evaluation takes into consideration an article's:

  • Relevance
  • Authority
  • Currency

Examine the article and consider the following points:

  • Is the journal the article appears in of significant academic standing for this level? Where did you find the article? (Database, references etc.)
  • Who wrote the paper and what is their expertise. Are the authors experts in the field (Academics, industry professional) and have they written other published articles?
  • Is the article current, does the date of the article matter for this subject area?