Graphic Design
BACHELOR OF FINE ARTS | MINOR
Learn how to solve problems with persuasive, visual communication and develop your vision under the mentorship of acclaimed faculty.
In the Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design degree program, we train our students in the art of persuasive, visual problem solving. Our faculty of professional designers help students develop and execute brand strategies in diverse media formats, including print, web, motion and mobile devices. Graduates complete this program with a strong understanding of concept ideation, design processes and methods, visual communication strategies, messaging, wireframing, design development and production workflow. Our curriculum recognizes graphic design as a communicative medium, emphasizes solid foundations in visual messaging, and gives students experience creating and presenting their ideas to an extensive range of audiences and consumers.
Students have the opportunity to participate in real-world projects such as World Studio’s Design Ignites Change and Design Lab while they enhance their skills in the classroom and draw inspiration from the dynamic city of Washington, D.C. At the end of the program, students participate in NEXT, the Corcoran’s award-winning, school-wide thesis exhibition.
Image shown above: "Invisible Scroll 墨隐若现" thesis project by Xitong (Rocky) Yuan (Graphic Design B.F.A., '24) on display at NEXT
INFORMATION SESSIONS
Date: Friday, September 20, 2024
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Date: Friday, November 15, 2024
Time: 5:30-6:30 p.m. ET
Location: Online
Graphic Design BFA
Our students learn current design industry practices and engage in a dialogue about the role of design in contemporary society, culture and business. By the end of the program, students develop professional presentation skills and a refined portfolio. Intimate classroom settings and detailed, critical feedback provide the conceptual, technological and communication tools to excel as working professionals in the fast-paced and competitive design industry.The culminating experience of the program is a two-semester thesis project during the final year, which is exhibited at NEXT.
Graphic Design Minor
In the Graphic Design minor (21 credits), students are introduced to the core methods, processes and skills of visual and communication design. The program helps students analyze and participate in the execution of design and brand strategies in diverse media formats, including print, web, motion, and mobile devices. Students from any major may complete the minor, including BFA majors in areas outside of design.
Corcoran Foundations
All first-year BFA students take Corcoran Foundations courses. For two semesters, you are an essential member of a tight-knit group of artists, designers and photographers. You will develop relationships across studio areas and foster multi-disciplinary approaches to making and problem-solving that can sustain a life-long investigative practice. Here you learn to think and communicate like an artist, take risks and challenge your assumptions, while developing the fundamental skills necessary to read and manipulate the complex language of images, forms and cultures that make up the world around you.
Curriculum
The Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design degree (120 credits) begins with a strong foundation in design principles and digital technologies, then progresses to more specialized courses in graphic design. Topics include a wide range, such as:
- branding/identity programs
- mobile apps
- web design
- interaction design
- systems design
- information design
- environmental design
- motion graphics
- typography
- publication design
As a professional graphic designer, you have the chance to create your own career path. Professional job opportunities and experiences take our students around the country and the world, including at companies in London, Hong Kong, New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Washington, D.C. They have gained real-world experience at:
Apple • Architectural Digest - Condé Nast • Chronicle Books • The Daily Beast • Discovery Communications • Graphik • Hirshorn Zuckerman Design Group • Harper's Bazaar • KINETIK • NBC • Newsweek • National Geographic • PBS
Careers in Design include work in:
Branding/Identity • Environmental • Exhibitions • Interactive Web • Interaction • Mobile Apps • Motion Graphics • Publications • Packaging • User Interface
GW’s Center for Career Services provides further resources for our students.
Image Shown: Graphic Design students during a final critique with guest critic, Audrey Gu.
Design Lab
Design Lab is a yearlong practicum that provides students with the opportunity to work on real-world projects including identity design, wayfinding, and communications for the Corcoran School and its distinct program areas. If selected, students work closely with professors and alumni to gain experience and develop professional-quality portfolio work—including the design of the school’s capstone festival, NEXT.
Free Minds Book Club
In 2024, Professor Aasawari Kulkarni’s Typography II class collaborated with the Free Minds Book Club, which helps Incarcerated youth write new chapters in their lives. “Students’ exceptional level of engagement and commitment was evidence that they were aware of the impact their work would have on someone at a personal level,” Kulkarni shared. The project was supported by GW’s Nashman Center.
Publication Design
In 2023, students in Professor Marc Choi’s Publication Design class partnered with Hometown Newsstand, an independent shop located in Washington, D.C., to develop a pop-up. In addition to creating original magazines, zines, and other printed matter to be exhibited and sold in the pop-up, students worked together to brainstorm ideas for the naming, design, merchandising, and production of the pop-up itself. The class project was featured in GW’s student newspaper, The Hatchet.
Students at the Corcoran have exhibited their thesis work for more than 30 years. In 2011, the exhibition came to be known as NEXT in a nod to the public seeing “what’s next” in contemporary art and scholarship. In 2023, NEXT evolved into a festival format to encompass the diversity of all the school’s programs and provide more public facing programming for the DC community. See examples from past classes’ culminating projects and work.
Photo: "Sensed" thesis project by Madeleine Brown (Graphic Design B.F.A., '24) on display at NEXT
Blaise Nettles (Graphic Design B.F.A.,’24) is a graphic designer and storyteller with a focus on understanding the way people interact with design in everyday life. In her graphic design thesis, Being Gay Is the End of the World: Creating Perspective Through Graphic Storytelling, Blaise acknowledges the importance of her perspective in human perception, practice and world building. Her project takes apart the visual styles that compose everyday life and puts them back together in uncanny and unseemly ways in order to create a grander, sillier, and more pointed perspective of the world.
Photo: "Being Gay Is the End of the World" thesis project by Blaise Nettles (Graphic Design B.F.A., '24) on display at NEXT
CONTACTS
Campus Address
Administrative Offices, Flagg Building
500 17th St, NW
cdes
gwu [dot] edu (cdes[at]gwu[dot]edu)
202-994-0884
Program Information
Program Administrator
Sheila Robinson
cdesgwu [dot] edu (cdes[at]gwu[dot]edu)
Program Head
Andrea Dietz
cdes_headgwu [dot] edu (cdes_head[at]gwu[dot]edu)
Advising
Faculty Advisor
Aasawari Kulkarni
akulkarnigwu [dot] edu (akulkarni[at]gwu[dot]edu)