Design Degrees Online

The graphic design program at Defiance College is intended to prepare students to express ideas visually in service to their employers and the wider good of society.

Graphic Design majors focus on using graphics and text to communicate ideas and emotions. Everything we do begins with the need to communicate. After we determine what our client is trying to say and the emotions they want to convey to the audience, we brainstorm graphics that may serve our purpose. Once we have some sketches that might work, we draw from a wide range of digital tools to make those sketches into finished products. Need a resizable graphic like a logo? Look at a vector program. Need motion graphics? Draw on video or animation. Sensitivity to the client’s needs, creativity in the design process, and proficiency in a variety of digital tools come together to make great graphic design.

Graphic Design is a major for those who:
Experience the world through sight
Watch TV for the ads instead of the programs
Doodle what others say instead of hearing what they say
Experience frustration at having to read books and write papers
See the ideas of the world as shapes and colors in space
Enjoy freelance activities and are self-motivated

Whether an artist chooses to work with traditional materials — such as plaster, clay, stone, metal, or wood — or more contemporary materials like found objects, electronic media, or one’s own body — the ability to communicate ideas and impulses requires sensitivity and skill.

Creating a successful sculpture involves a series of related decisions — literally layered one on top of another — that involve issues of craft, spatial orchestration, scale relationships, material interactions and tolerances, the eventual site of a work, and even the audience it invites. Ultimately, some intangible idea has been given form, and some previously dormant material has been given voice.

Sculpture, as it is practiced today, is a broadly defined medium. Montserrat’s sculpture faculty embrace a variety of attitudes and areas of expertise, and our courses provide a range of conceptual and technical information. Montserrat’s goal is to train, prepare, and enrich sculpture students, to allow them to flourish and create works of lasting physical, conceptual, and visual power.

At its most basic level, graphic design is a creative process that combines the visual arts and technology to communicate ideas. It begins with a message that, in the hands of a talented graphic designer, is transformed into visual communication that transcends mere words and pictures. By controlling color, type, movement, symbols, and images, the graphic designer creates and manages the production of visuals designed to inform and persuade a specific audience.

Contemporary Curatorial Practice MA

The course aims to meet the needs in the creative industries for well-informed, adaptable and critically astute curators. A graduate from this programme will have the ability to move between and operate within a wide range of curatorial contexts. The will have questioned the social and ethical implication of the work that they do and developed an awareness of the key issues in curatorial practice practice such as location, audience, inclusion and participation.
Learning contracts

This programme can be pursues as part of working life. A student-centred learning contract can credit work-based learning and provide an alternative and customised route through the programme. These arrangements can be operated internationally as a form of distance learning.

This program focuses on the information designer’s use of technology to create documentation and to deliver information to the intended audience.

The certificate work may also be integrated into a master of science program in professional studies.

Courses:
Three (3) electives chosen with approval of adviser
0688-711 Technical Information Design
0688-731 Technical Procedures
0688-741 Usability Design and Testing

Many Ringling alumni have pursued careers in advertising. Now, students who are interested in entering this $400-billion-dollar industry are able to tailor their studies to this well-established but constantly changing field. While the goal of the advertiser remains the same, the technologies, channels of delivery and global marketplace promise new challenges and opportunities.

Successful advertising is a fusion of great design, business expertise and consumer psychology. You’ll learn not only the formal and technical aspects of design, but also how to plan a campaign, evaluate an audience, develop a brand, and write compelling copy. In senior studio courses, you’ll develop a portfolio that showcases your skills in research, idea generation, systems design, promotional packaging and interactive design.

Many Ringling alumni have pursued careers in advertising. Now, students who are interested in entering this $400-billion-dollar industry are able to tailor their studies to this well-established but constantly changing field. While the goal of the advertiser remains the same, the technologies, channels of delivery and global marketplace promise new challenges and opportunities.

Successful advertising is a fusion of great design, business expertise and consumer psychology. You’ll learn not only the formal and technical aspects of design, but also how to plan a campaign, evaluate an audience, develop a brand, and write compelling copy. In senior studio courses, you’ll develop a portfolio that showcases your skills in research, idea generation, systems design, promotional packaging and interactive design.

“Graphic design is a creative process that combines art and technology to communicate ideas. The designer works with a variety of communication tools in order to convey a message from a client to a particular audience. The main tools are image and typography.” - from The American Institute of Graphic Arts Career Guide

The goal of the Graphic Design program at Oakton is to enable students to build a portfolio of work in order to:
Gain admission to a baccalaureate-granting institution or art school,
Show potential employers as part of the interview process for an entry-level position in the graphic design field,
Improve a particular skill set for career enhancement and/or advancement,
Change careers.

Graphic Design courses are listed in catalogs and schedules under either the ART or GRD prefix.

In a world of visual clutter, posters, billboards, magazines, even logos need to communicate effectively and creatively to engage an audience in visual overload. Graduates of this major know how to get that attention.

Your Career
There are as many career opportunities in print design as there are ways to communicate on a page. Graduates have found work as full-time illustrators, publication designers, production artists, advertising designers, or positions where versatility in all of these areas is required. Graphic design positions exist in large and small studios, agencies, print shops, and in-house design teams responsible for how an organization looks to the outside world. Graduates from the Design & Illustration program show a diverse professional portfolio that covers the entire design process from concept to production.

Web design, digital modeling and illustration, animation, compositing and motion graphics: if it communicates on a computer screen, Digital Media students know how and why.

Your Career
Graduates from Digital Media have pixel-based portfolios that show communication on-screen. Organizations must reach an increasingly wired audience and the designer who can show an understanding of how communication design and technology work together are in demand. Some build careers in web design and development, while others explore a combination of their skills in digital modelling, motion graphics, and print design. Opportunities exist in studios, agencies, or through independent contracts that cover a range of communication needs. Graduates have the versatility needed in a market that increasingly asks its designers to know multiple approaches for delivering a message effectively to a varying audience.