Graphic design as a discipline holds a rather unique and fascinating position in the world of aesthetic creation and study. As a tool to convey information to a mass audience, it is praised for its ability to clarify, educate, direct, and beautify; as an artistic medium, it is attractive because it holds possibilities for the student to manipulate a world of images, signs, and structures. Graphic design is responsible for informing the everyday object or common piece of information with a visual consciousness, for enlightening the mind of its audience, and for dismantling the usual social barriers that often prohibit an aesthetic experience in the everyday.
Books, magazines, posters, billboards, films, Web sites, product packaging etc., are the objects of the everyday, and as they are designed with artistic consideration, a complex identity and thought process begins to emerge and resonate within the consumer. A meaningful experience with the object, attained through thoughtful design, lay at the heart of the graphic design program.
In order for students to learn the concepts and skills required to achieve such an experience in their design, they are introduced to a healthy source of ideas and questions that expand their minds to analyze, research, and organize information. These creative thinking skills are then challenged and strengthened by giving students assignments that are geared toward an outcome at the professional level. Magazines, books, corporate identity, posters, motion graphics, and logos all result as creative solutions to complex communication problems that are identified and discussed in each course.