Want to be creative and get paid to do it?
The Design Program is where you prepare for such a career. With a degree from Truman, you'll be in high demand for a variety of jobs in the design field. Graphic design offers a broad range of professional career choices in the mass media, communications market. Our students have gone on to employment in advertising, marketing, television, publishing (newspaper, book, magazine, online), internet/ISP development organizations, corporate in-house design departments, entertainment industry and as self-employed designers throughout the region, the country and abroad.
Enhance your design skills with coursework covering illustration, web media, concept and design and learn about professional practices such as client and supplier communication and production processes.
Learn how to bring stories to life visually through dynamic three-dimensional modeling, motion graphic design, and animation.
With an art degree in design, you gain skills you can apply across a wide range of professional fields.
There are many different company sizes, as well as differences between the services or products they provide. Your projects could include brochures, in-store displays, and websites. Hallmark庐, in Kansas City, has hired Truman graduates and other types of corporations range from department stores to product manufacturers just to name a few.
Graphic design firms are typically run and staffed by individuals with design backgrounds and business experience.聽 You could enter a design firm as a print designer, a web designer, or someone who does both print and web.
Freelancing is a popular choice for pro-active go-getters. Being your own boss and the sense of freedom it brings can be empowering. You鈥檒l want to get your name out, create self-promotional materials, arrange meetings with prospective clients, and advertise.
Cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Austin, Texas, are brimming with web design firms that compete for the coolest clients. Many cater to specific areas, like the entertainment industry (music, film, television), hip companies from the corporate sector (cars, fashion, furniture), or the art crowd (museums, architects, galleries). Some will be lucky enough to have clients from the full spectrum.
Non-profits run the gamut from charities to the Red Cross to the Nature Conservancy. Plenty of print work will come your way at a non-profit, and many are expanding into the web arena.
Publishing houses vary from small and specific (perhaps focusing on only one type of publication, Christian, for instance) to large and all-encompassing (think Prentice-Hall or any of the New York publishers).
Along that same line, you could have your choice of a casual environment or one that鈥檚 more corporate.
Almost all universities and colleges have on-campus design departments, which are great for those designers who never want to leave college behind. These departments tend to be relegated to divisions like publications (print) and technology services (web).
Teaching visual communications in community colleges, colleges, and universities is an option for an experienced designer. The terminal degree required for most colleges and universities is a Master of Fine Arts. Experienced professional designers with an M.F.A. are in great demand by these institutions.
Working for three to five years professionally in a corporate environment is beneficial before pursuing a master’s degree.
Apple Macintosh or Windows PC with a minimum 512GB hard drive and 16GB RAM and backup drive. Note: Laptops (Macs and PCs) seem to have a shorter lifespan than desktop systems, so a 1 or 2 TB backup drive is highly recommended.
For graphic designers, there are many peripherals to consider 鈥� scanners, graphic drawing tablets, DLSR cameras, iPad/tablets, and large format printers. The Design program has tablets, printers and cameras for use by students and the department has 26 Mac computers in 3 labs (2 labs shared with Photography) with access to scanners for students use too. A design student can survive just fine without purchasing these peripherals as long as they are well organized and able to plan ahead.
You鈥檒l use our dedicated computer labs equipped with Macintosh computers, scanners, graphic tablets, b/w and color laser printers, large format inkjet printers, and a more traditional media studio for ink, dry media, and gouache watercolor illustration techniques. You鈥檒l also become intimately familiar with the Adobe Creative Cloud, the professional-grade software in your courses, including Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Acrobat Pro, Flash, Dreamweaver, Premier, and AfterEffects, as well as 3D modeling and animation software such as Blender and Cinema 4D.
Class of 2019