Design courses connect design foundations, research, emerging technologies, and professional practice through an experiential, project-based approach. Across the curriculum, students move from foundational skills to increasingly complex challenges involving branding, UX/UI, web and interactive design, emerging media, and real-world client work. Courses evolve in response to student feedback, industry practices, new technologies, and ongoing research, preparing students to think critically, experiment, collaborate, and adapt as designers.
Visual culture introduces students to an array of image-based practices with an emphasis on methods through which images are interpreted. The course introduces key concepts and histories from an eclectic range of visual arts, including art, film, and design. A focus is placed on cultivating an informed and critically engaged viewer, in order to empower and enrich individual visual experience and to cultivate visual literacy. Cross-listed as COM 218.
A studio course that focuses on digital imaging techniques for graphic design. Projects involve creating and editing digital images, exploring a range of digital illustration styles, and understanding copyright and other production-related issues. The course provides an introduction to several Adobe applications, including Illustrator and Photoshop. While skills development and technical knowledge are emphasized, design theory underpins the course.
Type Studio 1 explores the role that typography plays in shaping the form and content of visual communication. Through a series of studio projects and exercises that introduce letterforms and text in relation to images, texture, color, hierarchy, and grid structures, students explore a variety of design problems and build skills in communicating visual meaning. Lectures and demonstrations introduce the history, theory, and practical uses of typography.
This studio course explores a range of methods, techniques, and professional practices utilized in the field of graphic design. Students conduct design research; define communication problems; evaluate intuitive and analytical approaches to problem solving; and develop critical thinking, oral presentation, and writing skills. Emphasis is placed on the design process, creative collaboration, the appropriateness of form to a given context, and the integration of visual and verbal content.
An advanced studio/lecture course that focuses on the principles of brand development and application. Students explore the discipline of branding through design problems that integrate research, concept development, ideation, and design. Brand applications include a variety of two-dimensional and three-dimensional formats, covering visual identity, the brand experience, logotypes, typographic sets, color palettes, and photographic and illustration styles.
This course focuses on three-dimensional design as it applies to product containers. Type, layout, design, and form are fully explored to create commercial packaging, with all design problems carried through from concept to three-dimensional package. Focus is placed on the practical and aesthetic demands of designing three-dimensional sustainable products, the relationship between form and function, and the relationship between creativity and cost-effectiveness.
An advanced studio/lecture course that focuses on the principles of interaction design. The course explores human-centered and activity-centered approaches to designing and developing concepts for interactive products. Projects involve problem finding, user research, concept creation, systems-level thinking, usability testing, and the presentation of high-fidelity prototypes.
An advanced studio/lecture course that focuses on the principles of web design, the structural flow of interface design, content development, and web delivery for on-screen devices. Topics include identifying user, client, and design goals; defining information architecture; balancing functionality and aesthetics; optimizing media; designing for multiple devices; writing for the web; and designing for usability and accessibility.
An advanced studio/lecture course that focuses on the development of a professional-level portfolio for entry into the graphic design job market. Upon completion, portfolios are reviewed by visiting professionals from the design and advertising fields.
A capstone course requiring the student to apply knowledge and experience to a semester-long project as the culmination of their academic studio work. The thesis consists of a written component and a multifaceted design project in support of the student's research.
The Honors Capstone Sequence (HON 400, 401, 402) is composed of one-credit-hour courses where honors students complete their capstone project. Selected students present their projects to students in HON 200/201, HON 300, or to a public audience on Honors Day. The student's primary mentor is listed as the instructor for each course in the sequence.
NSAC, National Student Advertising Competition 2026 Client: NFL Outcome: 1st Place in the District; Top 15 in Semifinals This advanced studio/lecture course examines how neuroscience and psychology shape fans' perceptions of sports branding and advertising. Students will explore how emotion and memory influence attention and loyalty in a competitive media landscape. Course topics include the neuroscience of visual perception, habit formation in fandom, and the ethical use of neuromarketing strategies. Throughout the semester, students will apply these insights to design and prototype a multichannel sports advertising campaign, developing packaging, digital platforms, social media assets, and experiential activations. Students will have access to professional market research resources and will work with a nationally recognized brand as the client.
Learning Community Cluster: Envisioning Environmental Issues. Envisioning Environmental Issues is a learning community that examines real-world environmental concerns, how specific knowledge sets are represented and interpreted, and how information design affects science and society as a whole. Environmental issues explored include climate change, population growth, energy consumption, and food and agriculture. The course focuses on cultivating an informed, critically engaged viewer to empower and enrich the visual experience by exploring connections between science, traditional fine arts, and popular-culture imagery such as film, design, and advertising. The course cluster will include scientific labs and the exploration of various modes of image creation and interpretation.
A course designed to develop basic skills in essential graphic design software applications, including Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign. Students explore fundamental graphic design and typographic principles while learning software and apply these skills through a variety of graphic design problem-solving assignments.
A basic studio art course in creative black-and-white and color photography involving basic camera techniques and digital imaging processes. Students develop an understanding of photographic processes and design principles while exploring how photographers construct meaning through visual choices. The course combines studio projects with reading, research, and discussion of historical and contemporary issues and encourages exploration of photography's expressive and functional possibilities.
A studio course introducing the complex processes of graphic design production. Course topics include color management, digital image editing, layout formats, prepress, paper, printing, finishing, and binding, guiding students in making informed choices from a project's inception to completion.
An introduction to the principles of information design. Students learn the creative process of organizing, visualizing, and communicating data for visual systems and informational structures, with an emphasis on making complex information easier to understand and use. The course explores both the theory and practice of information design, including data visualization, communication, cognition, aesthetics, and decision-making.
Offered as a selected-topics course: an in-depth study or special learning opportunity with subject matter or visual media not normally offered in the Art curriculum.
Offered as a selected-topics course: an in-depth study or special learning opportunity with subject matter or visual media not normally offered in the Art curriculum.
A course focused on three-dimensional design as it applies to product packaging. Students explore type, layout, design, form, sustainability, and the relationship between form and function while carrying projects from concept through three-dimensional execution. The course addresses construction methods, sustainable material choices, cost-effective packaging requirements, surface graphics, and point-of-purchase applications.
An advanced studio course focused on the research, design, prototyping, and testing of mobile applications. Students apply user experience and interface design principles to develop intuitive, engaging, and accessible mobile experiences. Emphasis is placed on user research, information architecture, interaction design, visual systems, prototyping, usability testing, and iterative refinement. Students develop solutions that balance user needs, design strategy, functionality, and contemporary mobile design practices.
An advanced studio course focused on building web experiences for mobile devices. Students design and develop adaptive and responsive websites while exploring touch interaction, content optimization, mobile-specific programming, varying screen sizes and device capabilities, interface design, content development, prototyping, delivery, and testing. The course also includes advanced HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript.
An advanced photography course covering essential techniques and tools for landscape photography, including composition, cropping, natural light, focal length, space, depth, and perspective. Students explore camera controls such as white balance, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, and exposure compensation while using photography to communicate ideas and evoke emotion. Post-production includes developing RAW photographs using Photoshop and Camera Raw.