Design Department Missions and Outcomes

The Design Department at MCAD provides a rigorous learning experience that challenges, inspires, and educates students majoring in comic art, graphic design, and illustration.

Innovative creative thinking and form-making are equally nurtured within all programs through a robust studio practice, cross-disciplinary curricula, and a productive engagement with both traditional and emerging technologies. Professional development opportunities such as visiting artist and designer programs, mandatory internships, external partnered projects, and supplemental work-shops expose students to both disciplines and a variety of professional practices. Students also experience contemporary methodologies, techniques, and technologies. Near completion of their degree requirements, Design Department majors are assisted in launching their career, whether it be searching for employment or pursuit of further studies at the graduate level.

Comic Art

MCAD's comic art major teaches students how to identify and approach sequential narrative opportunities and problems, to find creative and responsive solutions, and execute those resolutions with precision and flair.

• Disseminate a wide range of information and communicate to a global audience.
• Identify, evaluate, and generate discussions across diverse and non-traditional media.
• Demonstrate professional-level visual and verbal ideas, problem solving, content and proposals.
• Fluid use of sequential language and concepts, process work, and traditional craft, contemporary craft, digital formats.
• Knowledge of professional practice and ethics in relation to culture and market.

Graphic Design

MCAD’s graphic design major produces designers who creatively investigate and engage with innovative problems, concepts, content, and form. We promote curiosity, process, 'making' and encourage students to develop a voice to produce original work. We produce graduates that are active practitioners and leaders within local, national, and international design communities.

• Design: Students have developed skills in communicating effective messages through a combination of visual and typographic means.
• Design Thought: Students utilize a rigorous design process to promote experimental, conceptual, and systems thinking through critical inquiry.
• Communication: Students can articulate conceptual and formal decisions through spoken, written and visual presentation modes.
• Context: Students know that innovative solutions and design practices are informed by cultural and social awareness.
• Implementation: Students are proficient in mechanical production and understand the need to adapt to new digital landscapes.
• Practice: Students command best practices that provide the skills to work individually as well as in collaboration with creative teams and service providers.

Illustration

MCAD illustrators are makers, thinkers, designers, and artists. MCAD illustration students are passionate about sketchbooks and painting as well as fluent in current technology. Traditional media, digital-knowledge and conceptual thinking are the building blocks of the illustration experience at MCAD.

• Apply a strong design practice from research boards, thumbnail sketches and refined sketches to final art.
• Explore a range of diverse materials and media to broaden technique and style.
• Utilize visual problem solving skills to effectively communicate an idea, creating challenging concepts and engaging narratives.
• Demonstrate an awareness of professional ethics and practices.
• Generate an original and individual voice presented in a portfolio, website, and other professional contexts.
• Create illustrations for a variety of markets and audiences: Publishing, editorial, advertising, surface design, corporate and gallery exhibition.
• Solve creative problems for print and digital formats.

Product and Furniture Design

MCAD’s Product and Furniture Design major immerses students in a methodology and process of creating functional objects. Students engage in projects from furniture and accessories, to soft goods and environments. A hands-on approach in a collaborative studio atmosphere allows students to explore and produce both commercial and residential products. Learned skills include digital modeling, rendering and fabrication; as well as hand-building and sketching. Building an understanding of everything from aesthetics to ergonomics, students are positioned for a practice of professional design.

• Utilize research methods to understand market sectors, client briefs and parameters, and evaluate design viability including trend, history, context, materials, ecological impact, ergonomics etc.
• Use two-dimensional media (drawings, renderings, etc.) and three-dimensional models, prototypes and other visual and spatial representations to develop and explore design ideation and intent.
• Confidently perform the designer’s core function as form-giver, creating fully-resolved, inspired, context-appropriate form, shape, texture and color.
• Develop designs that exemplify individual authorship and creative problem solving using industry-standard digital tools, platforms, and processes for limited and mass production.
• Produce fabrications and prototypes that demonstrate proof of concept, material knowledge, and manufacturing feasibility using traditional and experimental techniques.
• Present work visually and verbally in a manner that is compelling to the intended audience.
• Document the design development process and deliverables for portfolio and/or marketing use.