NCEA Level 2 Design and Visual Communication case studies
NCEA Level 2 Design and Visual Communication · Put your knowledge to work in context.
NCEA Level 2 Design and Visual Communication (often shortened to L2 DVC) is a New Zealand secondary-school subject within the National Certificate of Educational Achievement, the national qualification framework administered by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA). It is designed for Year 12 students who want to develop design thinking and visual communication skills - generating, testing and presenting design ideas through drawing conventions, modelling and digital tools - and it commonly feeds into Level 3 DVC, tertiary design study, and careers in architecture, industrial design, spatial design and graphics. The NCEA Level 2 Design and Visual Communication case studies are 5 cases and about 4,043 words.
1Flat-pack lamp: kerf, bed size and stability
Year 12 student Mia is designing a flat-pack desk lamp for a local market stall. The brief: retail at NZ$45, ship flat in a 320 × 230 × 40 mm box, cut from 3 mm MDF on the school laser cutter (bed 300 × 420 mm), assemble without glue or fasteners, stand 350 mm tall, and hold the light head over a 200 mm-diameter work zone.
793 words, about 4 min2Canteen alcove: 18 seats versus an accessible route
Southshore College wants to convert a disused tuck-shop alcove into a student study-and-eat space. The alcove is 4.2 m long × 2.6 m deep with a 2.7 m ceiling.
802 words, about 4 min3Production poster: two spot colours and an 8 m viewing distance
Te Awa College is staging a senior production and the drama department has asked student designer Rangi for an A2 poster (420 × 594 mm) to go in the main corridor and on the hall doors. The print budget covers two spot colours on 160 gsm stock - PMS 185 red and black.
814 words, about 4 min43D-printed bottle cage: heat, tolerance and print orientation
Tomas is designing a bottle cage for his commuter bike as his Level 2 product outcome. The brief: hold a 73 mm-diameter bottle carrying 1.5 kg of water, clamp to handlebars without tools beyond a 4 mm hex key, fit handlebar diameters of 22.2 mm and 31.8 mm, survive being left in a car in Hawke's Bay in February, and be made on the school printer (200 × 200 × 200 mm build volume, PLA, 0.4 mm nozzle).
808 words, about 4 min5Library wayfinding: De Stijl reference versus low-vision legibility
At Rutherford Library, Level 2 DVC student Aria is designing wayfinding for the children's section: six shelf-end signs, one wall-mounted directory at the entrance, and three door signs reading Toilets, Quiet Room and Staff Only. The librarian asked for 'a strong visual identity' and suggested Aria draw on her design-history research into De Stijl - rectangular planes, black grid lines, primary red, blue and yellow.
826 words, about 4 min