Illustrative Design

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Illustrative Design Department Mission

The BFA in Illustrative Design program aims to increase and combine intellectual, artistic and design thinking, planning, and practice to best prepare students for dynamic business environments.

Program Description

The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustrative Design provides students with a hybrid degree combining curriculum from both Graphic Design and Illustration. This program provides students with a solid foundation in technical, aesthetic, critical and practical skills necessary for career success. Students are challenged to develop their technical and design skills in two major areas, Graphic Design and Illustration.

The program philosophy incorporates a focus on the development of cultural, communication and design competencies, professional practice, and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in the profession.

Illustrative Design Program Outcomes

Cultural Competence

• Students demonstrate cultural competencies in the ability to describe and respond to audiences and contexts that communication and design solutions must address.
• Students demonstrate cultural competencies in recognizing the physical, cognitive, cultural, and social human factors that shape design decisions.

Communication Competence

• Students demonstrate communication competency in the ability to solve communication + design problems.
• Students demonstrate communication competency in their understanding of basic business practices, including the ability to organize design projects and to work productively as a member of teams.
• Students demonstrate communication competency in a strong use and proficiency in storytelling & communication.

Design Competence

• Students demonstrate design competencies in understanding: symbolic representation, principles of visual organization/compositional theory and information hierarchy, and the proper use of typography and its various applications.
• Students demonstrate design competencies in understanding art and design history, theory and criticism.
• Students demonstrate design competencies in a strong use and proficiency in media and digital skills, and mechanical skills such as drawing and the use of value and color.
• Students demonstrate design competencies in the ability to create and develop visual form in response to communication problems.
• Students demonstrate design competencies in a strong sense of personal style.

Critical Thinking

• Students demonstrate critical thinking skills in research and information gathering, analysis, generation of alternative solutions.

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