Graphic Design

An image depicting work at the School of Art + Design.
As the world changes, the world’s art changes with it. Graphic design sits at the intersection of traditional arts and emerging technologies. The screen or the printed page, online exhibitions or physical galleries, client-based contracts or personal projects—whatever your interests, the study of graphic design prepares you to challenge and shape the way we see the world around us.

A student of graphic design is a student of communications, methodology, theory, and process. Our curriculum offers dynamic and demanding training in the ideas and techniques of contemporary graphic design. But we also encourage you to look beyond our walls. As we see it, the best work in graphic design is informed and enhanced by the artist's exposure to other fields of art and theory. The result of this multidisciplinary emphasis is the emergence of original and significant designers.

Accessibility is a priority for our faculty members. In all of our courses, you work closely with professors to develop skills that will push you forward as a unique designer and thinker. As practicing designers themselves, the professors offer poignant insights into the latest trends and technologies in the graphic design industry. Resources such as the national literary and arts magazine Ninth Letter and Chicago's I space gallery—both affiliated with the School of Art + Design—provide strong opportunities to get your work in front of the public eye.

Graphic design provides rich artistic training with clear professional value. In our increasingly visual world, graphic designers are in high demand. What sorts of jobs might graphic design prepare you for?

  • Publication designer

  • Website designer

  • Multimedia designer

  • Environmental designer

  • Consultant/Freelancer

  • Typographer

  • Illustrator

  • Teacher

  • Studio artist

  • Motion graphic designer

  • Project manager

Resources in Graphic Design

The graphic design program provides a variety of resources that allow you to stretch your education beyond the classroom.

  • Ninth Letter is an award-winning literature and arts project combining the efforts of the School of Art + Design and the Department of English. Ninth Letter exists in two forms: a nationally distributed magazine and a well-trafficked website. Undergraduates in graphic design may participate in conceptualizing, developing, and producing the pages for the publication and the site. During the last few years, Ninth Letter has received honors from UCDA, the Type Director's Club, Step In Design, and SXSW.

  • The on-campus Krannert Art Museum boasts an archive of over 8,000 works of art and rotating exhibitions of traditional and innovative artworks.

  • The I space Gallery is the College of Fine and Applied Arts' home away from home. Located in Chicago's River North gallery district, I space is a 2,500-square foot professional exhibit area. Each year, seniors in graphic design participate in a well-publicized and well-attended I space exhibition.

Graphic Design Curriculum Requirements

The curriculum in graphic design requires 122 credit hours and prepares you for a career in the practice of visual communications. The curriculum combines graphic design courses with Art + Design foundation courses, art history courses, electives, and general education units required by the university.

Hours General Education Requirements
4 RHET 105 or 108—Composition I
3 Advanced Composition
15 Six hours in each of the following areas: humanities and the arts, natural sciences and technology, and social and behavioral sciences. ARTH 112 satisfies half of the humaniti es requirement.
6 Quantitative rea soning, I and II
6 Western and non-Western culture
0-12 Foreign language
34 Total
Hours Art History
4 ARTH 111—Ancient and Medieval Art
4 ARTH 112—Renaissance and Modern Art (General Education-Humanities & the Arts)
6 Advanced art history
14 Total
Hours Graphic Design
3 ARTD 210 — Introduction to Graphic Design
3 ARTD 211 — Design History Survey
3 ARTD 212 — Introduction to Typography
3 ARTD 213 — Introduction to Image Making
3 ARTD 310 — Intermediate Graphic Design I
3 ARTD 311 — Intermediate Graphic Design II
3 ARTD 410 — Advanced Graphic Design I
3 ARTD 411 — Advanced Graphic Design II
26 Total
Hours Graphic Design Electives (Choose four courses (12 hours) from the following list)
3 ARTD 313 — Sequential Design
3 ARTD 315 — Design Seminar
3 ARTS 260 — Basic Photography
3 ARTS 261 — Photography II
3 ARTS 262 — View Camera and Studio
3 ARTS 263 — Color Photography
3 ARTS 341 — Image Practice
3 ARTS 343 — Time Arts I
3 ARTS 344 — Interactivity
3 ARTS 360 — Photography, III
3 ARTS 361 — Alternative Processes
3 ARTS 362 — Photography Workshop
3 ARTD 415 — Ninth Letter
3 ARTS 443 — Time Arts II
12 Total
Hours Electives
9 Art and design electives (art and design courses not in graphic design requirements or used as graphic design electives)
  Open electives (as needed to total 122 hour degree)
122 Total