2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
    Nov 23, 2024  
2024-2025 Undergraduate Catalog

Graphic and Digital Design, B.F.A.


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Graphic design in the digital age is an activity of visual communication with new opportunities for creative expression in industries that barely existed a decade ago. Today's graphic and digital designers must constantly adapt to new technologies and a changing visual culture. The BFA in Graphic and Digital Design examines communication using words, symbols, and images, and explores the graphic designer's ability to bring clarity and visual aesthetics to communication with the use of technology through an understanding of the means of production, theory, and design practice. Our program is tailored for students who seek training in the latest technologies and the chance to transform the visual and design landscape of technologies yet to come.

The introductory courses in the graphic and digital design program concentrate on basic design vocabulary, composition, color, and visual perception. The curriculum continues and progresses through semiotics and practical techniques associated with typography, digital imaging, problem-solving methodologies, and applied design projects in branding, interactive and motion design, and advocacy. Students apply long-established principles to the evolving aesthetics of computer-generated art and electronic media while understanding the power design and technology can have to change the world. The BFA in Graphic and Digital Design prepares students for the professional environment of and graphic and digital found in independent design, digital and game studios, agencies, and corporations. Additionally, the rigorous course of study provides students with the foundation to continue with graduate studies in the field.

Program Outcomes

Students in this program will:

  • Assess the relationship between form and content..
  • Assess the use of authoring software and their impact on communication.
  • Design syntactically consistent typographic systems.  
  • Develop a body of cohesive artwork which aligns with personal professional goals.
  • Formulate a personal creative research project in an area of interest and produce a successful thesis exhibition.

Required Courses


Students earning a BFA degree in Graphic and Digital Design are required to complete a total of 121 credits comprised of the following:

The completion of 40 credits of University Core Curriculum with the following restrictions:

  • C1T1:  ENGL 1112  - Seminar in Academic Inquiry and Writing
  • C2T1:  COMM 1130  - Principles of Communication
  • C4T1:  PHYS 1130  - Physics of Light and Color with Laboratory
  • C5T1:  UNIV 1141  - Introduction to Academic Research and Project Management
  • C7T1:  ARHS 2250  - Modern Art, Modernity, and Modernism
  • C8T1: DSGN 2204  - Human-Centered Design
  • C9T1:  ARTS 2231   - History of Art I
  • C1T2:  ARTS 3301  - Writing for Designers
  • C2T2:  DGAD 2001  - Multimedia Communication
  • C5T2:  GRDE 1110  - Applications of Graphic Design Production
  • C9T2:  ARTS 1110  - Digital Photography I

Additional Requirements (9 credits)


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