Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design

This online Graphic Design degree program helps provide students with the advanced skills necessary to function as a graphic designer, junior art director or media designer.

The Graphic Design degree program is structured to help prepare you with a real-world understanding of the roles and responsibilities of today's graphic designers in the modern workplace, including:

A focus on hands-on projects, professional portfolio, and résumé building.
The opportunity to gain a mastery of career and industry-relevant skills in advertising, layout, type, color, and illustration.
An emphasis on industry-current technology including digital illustration and imaging, web and multimedia.

This career-focused, online graphic design degree program explores professional principles and practices in the graphic design industry, including aspects of page layout, digital graphics development, editorial design, branding and identity development, environmental graphics, packaging, prepress, interactive media design, design history, and theory.

Students will be challenged to examine and apply problem-solving techniques to the visual organization and layout of information and graphics, common business practices, advertising and marketing strategies and art direction.

Your Graphic Design training includes the following courses

Designing with Type
Design Fundamentals
Advertising Concepts
Page Layout
Digital Illustration
Digital Imaging
Publication Design
Pre-Press Production
Professional Portfolio Presentation
Advanced Digital Imaging
Environmental Graphics
Graphic Design Internship
Introduction to Computer Systems
3D Modeling
Professional Development for Design
Project Management for Graphic Design
Creative Thinking
Business of Graphic Design
Copywriting
History of Design
Interactive Animation
Interactive Animation II
Materials
Photography
Product and Package Design
Rendering and Illustration
Web Design I
Web Design II
Web Design III

* Curriculum subject to change.

What You Can Learn in the online Graphic Design Degree Program

Successful graduates of the Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Graphic Design will have had the opportunity to:

Analyze both the creative and practical aspects of design during the completion of graphic design and interactive media projects.
Demonstrate advanced page layout principles and techniques during the completion of individual and group projects.
Develop creative solutions for graphic design projects using various media (e.g., print, web, multimedia).
Examine the effects of human factors on graphic design processes, including principles of user-centered design, psychological and philosophical response, communication, comprehension and aesthetic appreciation.
Explore editorial design issues found within the publishing industry, including page layout, content concerns and media ethics.
Use interactive design software to produce digital solutions for various graphic design problems, including web page layout, multimedia software and/or information kiosks.
Demonstrate graphic design business practices, art direction ability, teamwork, project management skills during the design, and completion of a graphic design project.
Develop ability in the use of prepress equipment, color correction, master style sheets and page layout with a focus on craftsmanship and professional quality production.
Discuss advertising principles and practices as applied within the graphic design industry.
Analyze effective approaches to packaging and display design and develop packaging that takes consumer preferences, advertising principles and creative design strategies into account.
Investigate topics in branding and identity development, and utilize professional branding principles to revise or redefine a product or corporate identity.
Create environmental and information graphics to improve wayfinding, communication, ease of use and aesthetic design.
Apply drawing principles and techniques to the completion of graphic design projects using both computer software and traditional media.
Describe the use of color and design theory to solve complex design problems, and discuss the use of balance, rhythm, color, line, texture and light within one's work.
Develop skills in life drawing and perspective with a focus on realism, abstraction and creative design techniques.