MFA Graphic Design

MFA Graphic Design student work will demonstrate:

• Disciplinary Knowledge and Skills
  A solid understanding and application of core visual design principles—including typography, composition, hierarchy, color theory, and semiotics—by producing cohesive, conceptually informed work that reflects both technical proficiency and critical engagement with contemporary graphic design practices.
• Proficiency in Industry-Standard Skills, Technologies, and Processes
  The ability to apply contemporary production techniques and technologies by creating design artifacts that leverage current tools and methodologies, while demonstrating the ability to critically evaluate technological choices in relation to conceptual goals and develop new processes that contribute to the evolution of design practice.
• Cross-Disciplinary Awareness and Practice
  The ability to synthesize knowledge from diverse disciplines into their design practice by creating work that transcends traditional boundaries, collaborating effectively with practitioners from other fields, and applying theoretical frameworks from adjacent domains to generate new approaches to visual communication challenges.
• Audience-Focused Research, Historical Context, and Field-Specific Discourse
  The ability to conduct rigorous research that contextualizes design work within relevant historical, cultural, and theoretical frameworks, producing projects that demonstrate a strong understanding of audience and by contributing original perspectives to contemporary design discourse through written and visual explorations.
• Capacity to Identify and Solve Creative Problems
  The ability to develop new approaches to complex design challenges by applying multiple conceptual directions, implementing iterative prototyping methodologies, and producing design artifacts that advance the field through their visual sophistication.

MFA Graphic Design student work will demonstrate:

• Innovation
  The ability to create design artifacts that expand the boundaries of conventional practice by developing new methodologies, tools, or frameworks that contribute original perspectives to the field, resulting in work that offers original approaches to visual communication challenges.
• Experimentation and play
  The ability to employ exploratory processes throughout their design practice, documenting iterative investigations of materials, technologies, and methodologies, while critically analyzing experimental results to extract valuable insights that inform finished works of significant conceptual depth.

• Challenge to the status quo
  The ability to produce work that critically interrogates established design conventions by identifying limitations in current practices, developing alternative approaches supported by thorough research, and articulating a clear position on how their contributions offer meaningful advancement to the discipline's evolution.
• Bravery in their work and their interactions with others
  The ability to create conceptually challenging and potentially controversial design directions with conviction, defending their creative decisions through articulate presentations and writing, the ability to engage constructively with diverse perspectives that may challenge their assumptions.

MFA Graphic Design student work will demonstrate:

• Self-awareness
  An ability to articulate a distinctive personal design voice that positions their practice within relevant historical and contemporary contexts, while critically evaluating their own strengths, limitations, and trajectory as design practitioners contributing to the evolving field.
• Capacity to communicate (orally, written, and/or visually) about their practice
  An ability to present complex design concepts through sophisticated presentations, writing, and visual documentation that effectively translate their ideas into accessible narratives for diverse audiences, demonstrating the ability to adjust communication strategies for different contexts.
• Capacity to seek, assemble, evaluate, and ethically apply information and ideas from diverse sources
  The ability to conduct research that synthesizes ideas from multiple disciplines, incorporating new content, critically evaluating the credibility and relevance of various information streams, and thoughtfully integrating these diverse perspectives into design work that acknowledges its intellectual foundations and cultural influences.
• Analysis of both ethical and aesthetic impacts of art and design
  An ability to critically evaluate the societal implications of design decisions through rigorous analysis of their work's potential consequences across cultural, environmental, and economic dimensions, producing design solutions that demonstrate conscious consideration of ethical responsibilities.

• Understanding of themselves as parts of a larger whole made up of human and non-human beings.
  The ability to create design work that thoughtfully engages with ecological systems and interspecies relationships, evidenced through projects that critically examine the material, environmental, and social impacts of design decisions, while developing methodologies that acknowledge interdependence between human and non-human entities as fundamental to responsible design practice.
• Awareness of positionality – in the world, their field, their communities.
  An ability to develop critical frameworks for situating their design practice within complex cultural, socioeconomic, and professional contexts, producing work that demonstrates conscious engagement with how their own identity informs their creative choices, while articulating how their contributions advance equity within design discourse.
• Ability to work well, collaborate, and build relationships across differences in identity, perspective, aesthetics and disciplines
  An ability to initiate and complete collaborative projects with diverse partners from other disciplines and cultural backgrounds, demonstrating leadership in navigating complex conversations, synthesizing divergent viewpoints into cohesive design artifacts, and leveraging differences in perspective as generative forces that enhance outcomes beyond what could be achieved independently.
• Integration of skills, information, and concepts
  An ability to create sophisticated design artifacts that unify technical proficiency, theoretical understanding, and research, resulting in work that demonstrates synthesis across disciplinary boundaries while establishing new relationships between previously disconnected conceptual frameworks, methodologies, and bodies of knowledge within the expanded field of design.

MFA Graphic Design student work will demonstrate:

• Ability to define aspirations, future goals and their role within the creative economy.
  The ability to articulate a professional development plan that articulates their unique position within contemporary design discourse, identifies specific pathways for field contribution, and demonstrates how their practice creates value within evolving design economies.
• Awareness of audience and ability to cultivate relationships with others in their chosen fields.
  The ability to establish and develop meaningful professional networks and initiate collaborative opportunities that position them as valued contributors to the discourse of graphic design and the creative field at large.
• Compelling presentation and exhibition skills, through Annual Exhibition, Capstone, and portfolios
  The ability to frame and present their work through multiple formats, creating cohesive narratives that effectively communicate their design intent within the context of our Annual Exhibition / Final Show, and portfolio reviews that meet industry standards for professional presentation.
• Proficiency in budgeting, time and project management.
  The ability to manage design projects through comprehensive plans demonstrating effective timeline management and budgeting, and the ability to adapt methodologies in response to changing parameters while maintaining conceptual integrity.
• Career readiness, as evidenced by strong interpersonal skills, self-advocacy, adaptation, autonomy, initiative, and willingness to both receive and offer feedback
  The ability to demonstrate professional maturity through self-directed initiatives, articulate communication of expertise, receptiveness to diverse perspectives, constructive participation in critique, and adaptability across professional contexts while maintaining their unique design voice.