Graphic Design

Discover one of the nation's top design programs.

For 50 years, Graphic Design at the University of the Arts has been on the leading edge, delving into new technologies and re-inventing how handmade images and messages uniquely speak to the world.

As a Graphic Design student at UArts, you'll not only explore new technologies but old-world craft – from working with the latest equipment for digital video and sound recording, to 3-D printing and model-making, to creating hand-sewn books and letters cut from stone.

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The Place of Choice

Unique to UArts is the ability for students to venture out across disciplines, exploring every medium UArts has to offer, while accumulating program credits towards your Graphic Design degree. Free from the rigidity of a more traditional curriculum, you’ll have freedom to choose which skills you’d like to develop, ultimately generating a wealth of sought-after experience — as represented by our high post-graduate employment rate, with alumni working for companies like BuzzFeed, Spotify, Sony Music, Urban Outfitters and the Brooklyn Museum, to name just a few.

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Noah Cimatu

'18

Graphic Design

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

Mariah Deck

'18

Graphic Design

Hometown: Philadelphia

Jonathan White

'19

Graphic Design

Hometown: Clinton, Maryland

Our Graphic Design faculty bring experience from a range of backgrounds, from corporate branding to photographics.

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Andy Rementer

Graphic Design

Done work for 'The New York Times,' MTV, Urban Outfitters, Asics, 'The New Yorker,' Warner Brothers

Lisa Mangano

Graphic Design

Design consultant to global branding companies

Joel Katz

Graphic Design

Award-winning international information designer

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Sample Courses in the Graphic Design Major

First Year
Drawing: Objects & Space
Drawing: Natural Forms & The Human Figure
Image/Time
Color
Object/Environment
Body as Form

Second Year
Introduction to Design
Visual Perception and the Language of Form
Introduction to Applied Visual Communications
Visualizing Language I: Typographic Hierarchies
Electronic Media/Production

Third Year
Visual Communication I: Design in Context
Visual Communication II: Communication Media and Strategies
Visualizing Language II: Text Strategies
Digital Interactive Techniques
Advanced Digital Interactive Techniques

Fourth Year
Senior Studio
Design Strategies: Nonlinear Narratives
Design Strategies: Brand Identity
Applied Design Laboratory
Design Internship

About the Curriculum

The Graphic Design program delivers a professional degree that develops the student’s mastery and expertise in the current marketplace for the practice of graphic design or a related communications-oriented field.

Graduates of the Graphic Design program will:

Be experienced in both hierarchical and non-hierarchical forms of collaboration as professional preparation
Possess a unique intellectual and visual voice
Be able to adapt to a changing, unpredictable world and its communication needs where the methods of communication can be expected to evolve and expand.
Demonstrate a strong work ethic driven by both logical and inventive working processes.
Possess a high level of expertise within industry-standard technological environments and the propensity to prototype for high-level, complex technologically-based practices.
Be strategic thinkers with the ability to explain these strategies as a fundamental aspect of their design process.

To earn the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design, students will complete a total of 124.5 credits as follows: