Graphic Design (MFA) Learning Outcomes

Program Learning Outcomes

Mission Statement

The Graduate Program in Graphic Design (MFA) transcends individual media categories with cutting edge technology and revolutionary thinking, encompassing print, web, interactive, environmental, motion, and packaging. Individual students focus studies in typography, information design, cross-media branding, book and publication design, visual user experience and interactive design, environmental graphics, historical analysis, and critical writing. The basic competencies of our practice are typography, form, meaning, and craft. We are also committed to creative leadership and the entrepreneurial spirit. The program will educate designers to provide creative design management thinking for a wide range of situations. Graduates of this track will be prepared to manage, lead, and plan projects, engage organizations and groups in creative and strategic design endeavors, and pioneer new processes. The graduate graphic design program also serves students desiring to enter or re-enter the graphic design industry with the aim of expanding their careers through the use of high-level design strategy, and to move beyond the traditional designer’s role in a wide variety of corporate and alternative business models.

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Professional Practice

Graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate the skills necessary to excel in the design workspace as an entrepreneur, leader, or team member in a variety of work situations.

Critical Thinking, Analytic Thinking, and Strategy

Graduates will be able to:

• Generate a strategic, conceptual and formal direction based on research and analysis of an issue.

Craft: Typography, Images, Form, Execution

Graduates will be able to:

• Demonstrate expertise in the execution and articulation of graphic design craft.