Academic Accelerator - Bachelor of Design - Graphic Design

Program Description

As a student in the Academic Accelerator, you’ll receive:

• The right amount of support for your academic and English-speaking needs
• A full year’s worth of college credits
• Access to courses exclusively for international students
• English-language help with words you need to know for your classes
• A mix of classes with international and U.S. students

Graphic design makes ideas visible. It is a nuanced visual language that conveys concrete ideas by abstract means, combining the art of typography with the skillful rendering of signs, symbols, and images.

Graphic designers vocalize thought, solicit engagement, influence behavior, stage a dialectic, facilitate connection, provoke a response. Students of graphic design learn its formal principles and acquire the skills necessary to engage these principles in practice. They learn to look—a faculty of vision—and to see—a faculty of the mind. They learn discernment; to excise the trivial from the significant. Students learn to communicate visually—and compellingly—in the service of a greater public and, potentially, the greater good.

The School of Design at UIC is an established leader in design education. Students benefit from engagement with faculty recognized for excellence in their fields, and from the dynamic urban setting that is Chicago, with its thriving design community, exceptional cultural institutions, and penchant for invention. Students also enjoy ready access to the resources of a leading research university. 

Bachelor of Design in Graphic Design prepares students for professional practice. Curricula builds from skill-based instruction in 2D and 3D form-making toward advanced courses in Interdisciplinary Product Development and New Media Design, culminating in a senior thesis. The academic rigor and creative innovation of UIC Design is recognized by design-savvy employers in Chicago and beyond.