Graphic Design

Graphic design is an art that requires understanding and communication with nearly every discipline imaginable. As a profession, design bridges fields as diverse as science, literature, sociology, history, political science, mass communication and medicine. Designers provide a voice to organizations and institutions and manifest the communications link between supplier and consumer. Graphic Design can inform, persuade, organize, identify, motivate and educate.

Graphic designers work with typography, images, and the space around them to create advertisements, magazines and publications, logos and corporate identity systems, environmental signage, books, web sites and interactive presentations, packaging, menus, posters, brochures, annual reports and more.

Graphic Design at Shepherd University

The Graphic Design Program at Shepherd University aims to provide the student with a comprehensive knowledge of the discipline- its history, theory, practice, and profession- as well as its inherent problems and possibilities. First year students develop visual literacy by exploring the elements and principles of design. Assignments encourage conceptual thinking and provide opportunities for gaining technical skill and attention to craft. Upper level coursework emphasizes interdisciplinary thinking, theory, and process and the integration of these components through the refinement of creative problem-solving approaches. Projects are designed to integrate these components and offer the occasion to reüne research, writing, and presentation skills.

Guided by a professionally active and accomplished faculty, the Graphic Design Program offers exceptional courses in design for publishing and marketing, information design, typography, identity and branding, environmental graphics, and web and multimedia design. The breadth and depth of the faculty's collective expertise provides students the support to explore the field's many diverse disciplines. A state-of-the-art graphic design lab supports the Program with the latest Macintosh hardware and software, and high-resolution input and output capabilities. The program's setting in a school of fine arts provides students access to a broad range of facilities including painting, photography, printmaking and sculpture studios. An in-house Professional Practice Studio course gives students the opportunity to produce highly visible work for clients the such as the United States Department of the Interior. Off-site internships provide additional learning experiences where students gain real-world experience, make contacts, and refine their professional portfolios. Students join faculty in an extensive travel program offering many opportunities to study and experience both domestic and international cultural centers.

Students In Our Program

Successful design students in our program share an interest in the visual world, a curiosity about communication in all of its forms, and a passion for the visual interpretation of abstract ideas. They are intelligent, resourceful, enjoy conceptual problem solving, and are comfortable engaging openly in critical dialogue with both their instructors and classmates. Successful students are aware of the client-driven focus of design and develop the maturity and perspective to separate work from self. They enjoy working both in teams and individually, and have excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Graphic Design Program student work has won national recognition in design publications such as the How Self-Promotion Annual, and many alumni have established notable practices of their own and have received recognition by AIGA, Communication Arts, Graphis, How, ID and Print, among many others.