The BFA in Visual Communication Design program is an interdisciplinary program with a blend of professional and fine art studio courses and a liberal arts curriculum. Specific objectives are centered on professional preparation including technical competency, effective visual communication, and development of a professional portfolio. The program prepares students for careers in advertising, publishing, illustration, and design for print and digital media, or for entry into graduate school.
The BFA program includes an in-depth focus on design studio courses for professional preparation.
Students develop technical competence, informed aesthetic judgment, and skills for collaborative visual production on creative teams. They develop an understanding of branding and marketing concepts, and how visual design supports them. Students learn to develop meaningful visual solutions for problems in a global, competitive marketplace using both print and digital media. The liberal arts core enables students to develop the critical thinking and communication skills necessary for professional preparation. A Sophomore Review is conducted at the end of the second year to ensure adequate progression of skills.
Strong connections to local firms, professional organizations, and alumni working in the industry provide students with various internship, networking, and employment opportunities.
The Visual Communication Design program requires a 3.0 GPA in the major.
Student Learning Outcomes
Students will:
1. Attain competency in studio practice / technical skills:
- Attain competency in composing the elements of art with the principles of design
- Develop technical skills in a range of mediums and design applications related to the visual communication design field
2. Develop conceptual process in problem solving abilities for visual communication:
- Acquire abilities to develop creative strategies to visual communication problems, understand message hierarchies, typography, aesthetics, composition and the construction of meaningful images
- Understand and effectively use graphic design terminology
- Develop an understanding of basic business practices, including the ability to organize design projects and to work productively as a member of teams
3. Analyze design with regard to cultural context:
- Achieve a broad understanding of diverse issues and contexts for design
- Understand and apply knowledge of significant historical and contemporary achievements in graphic design
- Students will show respect for all forms of diversity, practice inclusivity, and engage in a continual process of education and critical self-reflection and dialogue.
4. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Student Learning Outcomes
Students in the Art and Design Department will show respect for all forms of diversity, practice, inclusivity, and engage in a continual process of education and critical self-reflection & dialogue. Students will be able to:
- Acknowledge that individuals of diverse racial & ethnic, gender & sexuality, religious, class & cultural backgrounds create art.
- Recognize that artmaking is an expressive practice comprising not only individual perspectives, narratives and experiences but also cultural, social, economic and political issues.
- Synthesize knowledge from multiple disciplines including diverse traditional and contemporary art movements with their own artistic and/or scholarly vision to create unique and meaningful works of art, design or scholarship.
- Analyze, reflect upon, discuss and/or write about their own and others’ works of art and design using culturally sensitive and inclusive language.
- Understand the ways in which traditional art associations (including collections, apprentice workshops, museums, galleries and academies) embody institutionally biased practices.
- Assess the symbiotic dialogue between artists and their culture, recognizing that they both reflect and influence each other.
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