Join the Graphic Design Bachelor’s at American University! Experience immersive learning in Washington, DC, and gain valuable skills. Apply now!
The Extended Accelerator Program (EAP) may be completed in a few as three semesters and is for students seeking an immersive English-learning experience. The program gives students a firsthand, practical, and cultural understanding of the American University campus and the Washington, DC, area through its contextual curriculum. They may enter the program in the spring or fall and progress into year two of their undergraduate education with up to a full year’s worth of academic credits. Depending on their intended degree, they may choose their elective curriculum in social sciences, humanities, or the sciences. In the Bachelor of Arts - Graphic Design, the Department of Art encompasses the creative activities of the fine arts (painting, sculpture, printmaking, and new media practices), the artistic applications of design, and the theoretical and historical concerns of art history. These complementary programs function together, so that the student gains not only depth of knowledge in a chosen specialty but also the breadth of experience that yields understanding of artistic traditions, values, cultural awareness, and contemporary issues. A faculty of exhibiting artists, practicing designers, published and respected historians, and strong studio programs focused on giving students facility with materials and familiarity with visual and theoretical concepts make the art department, in effect, an art school within a university. The design curriculum is highly structured and sequential to provide students with the theory and practice of graphic communications design applicable to many purposes, as well as the development of professional production methods. Courses cover publication and editorial design, corporate identity, packaging, illustration, poster design, multimedia, experience and interactive design, etc. Along with creative and technical skills, verbal and analytical abilities are developed through class critiques. Through internships with designers working in the field, they learn to balance the ideal creative solution with the reality of budget constraints, technical limitations, and deadlines.
