Bachelor of Arts in Graphic Design
The Graphic Design major prepares students for a wide range of professional options. Branding, advertising, publication, web, digital and broadcast design, exhibition and type design are all possible career paths. The major offers both theory and studio courses that will enable design students to integrate a good command of visual language with conceptual work, theory, and technology.
Classes are mostly critique based, encouraging debate, discussion and lateral thinking, utilizing formal and practical knowledge. Most course work is conducted in studios. Classes are taught by a group of accomplished faculty supported by visiting faculty, guest lecturers, field trips, camps and workshops. Students create work that is uniquely theirs helping them build a portfolio from which they can build their careers.
Declaration of the Graphic Design Major
To be eligible to declare a Graphic Design major, students must have completed four courses in the program: DSGN 2200 (Analogue and Digital Practices), DSGN 2113 (Introduction to Visual Cultures), DSGN 2201 (Design I) and DSGN 2115 (History of Graphic Design). After the completion of these four courses, students are requested to sit for a portfolio interview where their work is evaluated by a committee. Based on the availability of space, a limited number of students who have successfully completed their courses and who present a promising portfolio as determined by the department will be accepted in the major.
The Visual Cultures Program
The Graphic Design major participates in the Visual Cultures Program at AUC, which provides the home for interdisciplinary study in theory and practice across the three individual majors of Visual Arts, Graphic Design, and Film. Established within the Department of the Arts in 2011 in response to the increasingly interdisciplinary character of visual creative practice in the 21st century, the Program offers courses that facilitate research-driven creative practice and the critical study and conscious use of diverse visual media in cultural context.
As contemporary “visual culture” is a necessary open-ended field in continual transformation, the Visual Cultures Program is a work in progress. It currently supports two introductory courses: the studio course Analogue and Digital Practices, which is cross-listed as ARTV 2200 , DSGN 2200 , and FILM 2200 and offers foundational study in visual research in a cross-disciplinary environment; and the lecture course Introduction to Visual Cultures, which is cross-listed as ARTV 2113 , DSGN 2113 , and FILM 2113 and provides students with primer in the key terms and concepts for the analysis of visual texts past and present
Major Requirements
A total of 120 credits are required for the bachelor’s degree in Graphic Design.
