The graphic design program in The Design School is committed to excellence in traditional and contemporary graphic design education, professionalism, research, and service for the community at large. Faculty, alumni, students and visiting designers and educators constantly reinforce the link between society and nature and vigorously advocate quality in developing communication strategies.

The BSD curriculum acknowledges the need for creative environments that address ecological concerns and encourages students to develop sustainable transdisciplinary work sensitive to cultural aesthetic. The curriculum develops a strong foundation of design principles through lower-division studio and lecture courses, using this to build an overall understanding of how design can shape perception and meaning using visual media. Upper-division studio courses provide opportunities for students to work in collaborative teams addressing professional projects in information design, interaction design, exhibition design, animation, motion graphics, branding, publication design, web design, interface design and the multiple contemporary facets of sensorial design.

Graphic designers are responsible for designing how information is communicated. Forms of communication include print, video, film and electronic (web). Graphic designers are concerned with appearance, choosing the appropriate mechanism for communication, clarity of information and its effectiveness and how communication is transferred and received.

The BSD program in graphic design places an emphasis on strategic communication developed through a design process that includes research, analysis, conceptualization, planning and realization. The process leads to innovative visual communication design solutions for contemporary design problems that are local to global in scope.