Overview

Design, and the process of design making, is in all aspects of today’s media world. From the more traditional graphic design and layout design, to the world of digital media design – thumbnails, social media design and social media branding, to video design, almost every type of media created today includes design process and design making. Designers are not only adept at creating the visuals needed for today’s communication, designers are also expert communicators, and able to communicate clear, concise and compelling messages in a wide range of formats. The Visual Communication and Design Specialization offers students an in-depth look into visual communication, graphic design, and the use of visual media in the world of media making. Students are introduced to a process based approach to media making and visual communication projects, focusing on the intricacies of design, layout, visuals, text, font, color, and all other aspects of design work. Course work in this specialization is project based and process based, and students will put their skills, creativity and media making into practice from their first trimester. You won’t be designing just to design, your work and projects will focus on solving, or offering solutions, to real-world problems and situations. Instead of designing a poster for fun, you’ll design a poster for a social campaign that you create. Instead of talking about how design work can provide innovative solutions to problems, you’ll design projects to solve real-world problems. The projects you’ll work on will give you experience as a graphic designer, user-experience designer, social media content designer, and even prepare you to be a design entrepreneur.