Graphic Design

Overview

Key facts

Freshman year foundation courses introduce visual concepts in two and three dimensions. Students at Boston University specialize in Graphic Design coursework beginning in their sophomore year. Yearlong graphic design and typography studios emphasize form and communication. Junior-level graphic design and typography studios address authorship, audience, and medium. Students are challenged to think creatively and strategically by developing content, defining an audience, and determining an optimum communication platform. Senior year culminates in a thesis project where students articulate a personally driven design methodology to examine relevant and valued topics in contemporary practice. Electives complement the core graphic design and typography studios, affording the opportunity to specialize in areas of interest and providing the essential curricular agility to navigate in a changing practice.

Faculty members work closely with students to strengthen students’ technical and conceptual abilities through both carefully defined and open-ended projects. They also serve as an entry point into professional practice through their own studio practices and professional networks. Students are expected to actively participate in the Boston-based design community through organizations like AIGA in order to cultivate their own professional networks. The Graphic Design program benefits from cross-disciplinary engagement with the College of Communication, the Questrom School of Business, Innovate@BU, and the Hariri Institute for Computing, which enables the sharing of expertise and collaboration with creative individuals in various communication-driven fields.

Learning Outcomes

All students graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Boston University School of Visual Arts are expected to:

• Develop a body of work that exhibits inventiveness, creativity, ambition, and clarity of thinking.

• Demonstrate proficiency in studio process including materials, tools, and techniques appropriate to the practice.

• Demonstrate one’s ideas through a unique visual language.

• Demonstrate spoken and written critical thinking and communication skills.

• Apply appropriate models of interpretation based on historical and contemporary artistic knowledge.

• Generate a collection of materials that sustain a professional practice: artist statement, CV, image documentation, and online presence.