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Graphic designers use type and image to create meaning. They inform, persuade, and educate. Their work is seen on business cards and complex identity and branding systems, in textbooks and magazines, in movie titles and graphics on TV, on billboards and posters, on architectural signage and other information systems, on websites and interactive displays.
While the designed object is vitally important, it is how it affects its audience that is central. In the graphic design program at ECU we care about the traditions of fine typography, juxtaposition of word and image, nuances of space and positioning, and the expressive use of color but we remember that the most important aspect of graphic design is its effect on our world.
Graphic design is an area of emphasis in the School of Art and Design (SoAD). The program is over 30 years old and is recognized as one of the outstanding programs in the Southeast. Our faculty and our graduates have had their work featured in national journals such as Graphis, Print, How, and CA magazines, and included in annuals published by national design institutions such as AIGA, Type Directors Club and American Center for Design. Faculty writing on graphic design issues has been featured in books, magazines, and academic journals and is featured in several anthologies on the subject. Our students have won regional and national scholarships.
Graphic design students begin their education in a foundation year common to all SoAD curricula where they work with traditional materials to develop basic concepts relevant to all visual media. Their foundations classmates will go on to major in areas such as painting or wood design, textile design, or art history. Interaction among the concentrations continues—all SoAD students are required to broaden their studies beyond their chosen major. This breadth of studies supports the SoAD mission, which includes a commitment to creating an atmosphere in which intellectual inquiry and aesthetic expression are pursued through a multidisciplinary curriculum. Our setting in an art and design school provides a rich context in which to develop as an individual who will influence the visual forms found in our culture; our setting at a research university broadens and deepens the student’s experience.
Graphic designers use computer technology but more importantly they use creative and critical thinking and aesthetic and cultural sensitivity. Students are guided through a rigorous curriculum that stresses the development of an ability to manipulate images, typography, and visual systems in order to produce appropriate and effective communication. Class critiques develop students’ capacity to engage in constructive dialogue concerning cultural context, design processes and solutions. Coursework provides students with a portfolio that will enable them to enter professional practice.
Graduates of the program have gone on to work in design offices of every scale from sole proprietorship to large international design firms. Their work encompasses the diverse spectrum that is graphic design. Some work for in-house corporate creative services, some in the entertainment industry, others work in cultural institutions such as zoos or museums. They work for government offices and for industry, for hospitals and universities. Some have gone on to graduate school and now teach graphic design. They are employed in North Carolina and throughout the nation.
The program also includes post graduate studies. The MFA program is small and individualized. Contact lamerek@ecu.edu for more information.
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