Like busy wallpaper, images and messages surround us in our everyday lives, each visual communication demanding our attention. The competition is fierce.

Now more than ever, great design matters. It has to stand out in the avalanche of posters, ads, flyers, direct mail pieces, books, magazines, Web sites, etc., or else disappear from sight.

At SVA, you become a graphic designer who matters by developing a personal visual vocabulary that is strong in the formal principles of design and solves problems through the process of clear conceptual thought.

You start with the basics. What’s mandatory is an in-depth understanding of scale, texture, symmetry, tension, line, color, tone, balance, contrast, pattern and the principles of perspective. These, in a sense, are the alphabet of your visual vocabulary. Typographic design skills are essential, and you will develop not only fluency in the range and uses of available typefaces, but insight into how people perceive textual communication. You’ll know the “why” along with the “what.

School of Visual Arts

MFA Designer as Author