Graphic Design
Graphic design is the directed communication of information and ideas. Graphic designers create visual statements that can make information more accessible, advocate political positions, address social issues, entertain, advertise and evoke a strong emotional response in a viewer. These messages can be created for broad segments of the public or for very specific members of the community. Graphic design redefines our world when it is placed into the outdoor environment, affects interior architecture, shines through electronic screens and transforms books, magazines, advertising, posters, video and film.
What makes us different: 40 years on the leading edge of design
For more than 40 years, Graphic Design at the University of the Arts has been recognized as one of the nation’s top design programs — on the leading edge, exploring both new technologies and re-inventing how handmade images and messages uniquely speak to the electronically engaged world. We encourage students to seek new ways to integrate these two ways of thinking/working to find innovative solutions to a variety of communication challenges. From typography to electronic media, problem solving to intensive communication studios, the Graphic Design curriculum prepares students to become top-level professional designers and leaders across the wide-ranging and increasingly important field of design in today’s creative economy.
Many faculty members have studied under pioneering designers in Europe and the United States, who defined today’s profession of graphic design. Faculty work has been recognized in design publications internationally such as Who’s Who in Graphic Design (Switzerland), Eye (United Kingdom) and Idea (Japan), as well as Communication Art, Design Quarterly, How and Print in the United States. Faculty work is in the permanent collections of important design museums such as the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Design of the Smithsonian Institute, the Museum of Modern Art in NYC, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, the Kuntsgerbemusuem in Zurich, Switzerland, and the Library of Congress.
Students can gain real-world experience before graduation through University internships, a team-based design lab that investigates communication problems with real-world clients and through freelance work in Philadelphia. Many students are qualified after their junior year to undertake entry-level, part-time design jobs in the Philadelphia region or in New York City.
Where do UArts Graphic Designers work after graduation?
Alumni of the University’s Graphic Design program work in just about every aspect of the visual communications field, many in leadership positions. They are the CEO and the Global Executive Creative Director at international branding and communications firm Siegel+Gale in NYC, and the Senior Mobile-User Interface and User Experience Designer for AOL. They work at MTV, Sony Music and WGBH TV in Boston; at top global design and advertising firms such as Pentagram and Hill-Holiday; at the Brooklyn Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art; and as visual communicators across the world — in Canada, China, Cyprus, Italy, Japan, Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan and the United Kingdom.
