The program in Graphic Design, responding to the changing climate of the profession, has adjusted its curriculum to give all students a working knowledge of both print and “experience” design – the creation of interactive web sites. In their junior year, Graphic Design majors take classes in both print design and in information architecture, the design of data for print and the Web. Seniors continue to explore problems in both of these facets of design, completing extensive projects that encompass print and new media. In the first semester of the senior year, all Graphic Design majors develop a degree project. This project, of the student’s own making, can use elements of 2, 3 or 4-D design.

The changing technology has placed graphic designers in the forefront, creating visual messages for the Internet, for print, and for public signage. Its power and complexity also changes the traditional role of the designer. Designers often find themselves as team leaders and are expected to understand a range of artistic and commercial design applications. “Design will be the art of the 21st century,” predicts faculty member Jan Kubasiewicz. Social and technological changes are challenging the traditional boundaries of visual communication and creating unprecedented opportunities for designers and illustrators.

Students work with teachers who are themselves professional practitioners, to learn work in both print and dynamic media. The fundamentals of design remain the same across media: color must enhance meaning, typography must be read, images must strengthen the message.

Students define, research, and produce a degree project that often informs their professional direction. With the help and advice of faculty and with interviews and internships, seniors shape their portfolios toward their area of professional interest. The annual group show of portfolios attracts professionals from software firms, publishing houses, advertising agencies, and design studios that produce print and interactive media.

We also offer internships with organizations such as WGBH, Houghton-Mifflin, and a number of advertising agencies, web design, and high tech companies. And every year since 1978, we have sent an outstanding junior from each of the five design concentrations to the International Design Conference in Aspen, Colorado, a truly interdisciplinary design conference. The students then return and share information with the rest of the students.