Graphic Design

The Graphic Design Emphasis delves into those complex questions that absorb both the novice and the expert in the expanding arena of visual communication. The curriculum encourages a rigorous handling of thought processes combined with inquiries springing from the traditional through the transitional and emerging media.

The emergence of new multifaceted word and image forms, opens the way for informed expression solidly built on curiosity, honest work and the need to reason and create. The faculty allows for the intellectual, intuitive, and perceptual approaches to problem solving, all balanced on the fundamental belief that effective communication, not style is the desired goal.

Although the Graphic Design Emphasis constantly acknowledges the influence and significance of new technologies in education, the question of essential sources for creative formative work is addressed through attention to development in the following areas: mark-making, reading, and writing. These areas of observation are anchor points for the development of the graphic designer. Together, they provide the student with a comprehension of the intellectual and visual environment in which we live. The study of design history, in association with instruction in typography, word and image, sign/symbol, semiotics, and a range of digital and analog production methods, forms the foundation for a commitment through which research and expression can be accomplished.