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Design
An Expanded Model of Design Education
The Design Program at the University of San Francisco integrates coursework in graphic design,
digital media design, and environmental design into a dynamic interdisciplinary studio concentration.
The well-educated designer of today must be able to work comfortably across a broad range of
media and demonstrate proficiency with the design of messages, interfaces, and public spaces.
We believe that the university is the ideal place to foster this “expanded” model of design
practice because it encourages our students to conduct independent research as well as collaborate
with students from other disciplines.
By practicing design in an expanded field, our students gain comprehensive experience with a wide
range of process-oriented skills, including conceptual development, visual rhetoric, formal experimentation,
and critical thinking. We teach our courses in state-of-the-art computer labs, where students gain
fluency with advanced production methods and digital technologies. Though we encourage our students to
express their personal interests in their project work, we are equally committed to having them
engage with the various demographics of the larger community by working with non-profit and other
community-based groups. Advanced courses in the program provide students with opportunities for such
work, both locally and internationally, the goal being for them to identify the issues that concern
them most and to create design solutions that respond to the pressing needs of a rapidly changing global
culture.
Because we value a diverse student body, and because we uphold the value of a strong liberal arts
foundation, we welcome into our program students with curiosity about the world and the desire to
develop critically, conceptually, and technically, even if they have no previous art or design experience.
We are confident that all of our graduating students will leave with a body of knowledge and skills
that will serve them well as graduate students, professional practitioners, design educators, or
community leaders.
The Design Curriculum Includes:
Two introductory Fine Arts studio courses (Studio Systems and Drawing I), with the opportunity
to enroll in elective courses in advanced drawing, painting, printmaking, photography, and sculpture.
A two-semester comprehensive survey of Western Art History, with the opportunity to enroll in
elective courses that examine the cultural diversity of art movements from prehistoric times
through contemporary culture, both locally and globally.
An eight-semester sequence of the following design-specific courses:
Design Media Lab I will introduce students to the
use of the computer as a tool for design process and production. Course work will focus on guided
demonstrations and independent project work, with an emphasis on building students’ technical and conceptual
fluency with the Macintosh operating system and the Adobe Creative Suite of design applications.
Visual Communication will introduce students to the
study of graphic design as a wide-ranging practice for the creation, reproduction, and dissemination of
visual messages. Through sustained project work, students will investigate the ways that texts and images
can serve as instruments of information, identification, and persuasion. Lectures, readings, and student
research will supplement project work; introducing students to the concentrated disciplines of typography,
semiotics, visual rhetoric, and design history.
Typography will introduce students to the design
and history of printing types. Through independent research and project work, students will produce typographic
solutions to applied and experimental problems using typography as their singular design element. Lectures,
readings, and guided discussions will supplement project work, introducing students to the topics of typographic
composition, letterform design, and printing history.
Publication Design will introduce students to the practice,
history, and theory of book and periodical design. Through design research and independent project work, students
will experiment with the compositional principles that have informed the practice of publication design from the
time of the first printed books through the contemporary era of digital production.
Design Media Lab II will introduce students to advanced
use of the computer as a tool for design process and production. Course work will focus on guided demonstrations and
independent project work, with an emphasis on web-based interactivity, video production, and digital animation.
Digital Literacy will introduce students to the practice and
history of computing and electronic media. Course work will cover the topics of dynamic data, social networks, and
user-generated content, along with a critical analysis of the ways that digital technologies influence our everyday lives.
Social Practice will introduce students to “new genre” public art,
urban interventions, and other project-based community practices. Through research and project work, Design Program students
will collaborate with students from other disciplines to create projects that address community concerns and social needs.
Information Visualization will introduce students to the design of
complex information systems. Information has been an effective way to communicate both abstract and concrete ideas from
the time of the earliest cave paintings until the internet-based projects of today. Lectures, readings, and student
research will supplement project work, introducing students to the concentrated disciplines of mapping, comparative
timelines, and information design.
Exhibition Design Practicum will provide students working experience
with the professional practice of exhibition design. Through research and collaborative project work, students from
the Design, Art History/Arts Management, and Architecture & Community Design programs will curate, design, and mount
an exhibition for the university’s Thacher Gallery.
Senior Design Project will allow students the opportunity to design a comprehensive project that synthesizes what they have learned throughout their tenure in the Design Program. Using quantitative and qualitative design research methods, students will develop and produce a project that responds to specific cultural, social, and political changes in the world around them.
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