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Design and Applied Arts is a degree category that consists of the following common degrees:
- Read more about Illustration
Illustration degree programs teach students how to tell stories and communicate ideas visually. They cover traditional manual drawing, digital art technologies, and art and illustration history. Some programs may include painting classes or offer concentrations in a specific kind of illustration, such as book illustration, fashion illustration, exhibit drawing, or animation and cartoon drawing.
The goal of every curriculum, from those that award an illustration degree online to graduate programs that award a Master’s Degree in Illustration, is to develop both technical skills and a visual philosophy that graduates can apply in a variety of illustration careers.
- Read more about Industrial Design
In essence, industrial designers design the way that we live our lives, by creating, innovating, and styling the common mass-produced items that we buy, use, and consume.
They are the professionals who research, build, and test prototypes to maximize the functionality and desirability of products, from cars to food packaging to consumer electronics. In their work, they consider characteristics like materials, size, shape, weight, color, functionality, and safety.
Students of industrial design learn in the classroom, in the computer lab, and in the design studio. They study the history of industrial design, design conceptualization, drawing, dimensional and computer-aided design, materials and processes, and model making.
In the simplest of terms, this is a degree for the person who loves art and loves to make things. It is a degree found at the intersection of science and art.
- Read more about Visual Communication
Visual communication is about visual storytelling. Degree programs in the field teach students how to tell stories using words, symbols, and images, how to communicate ideas and information to targeted audiences in all kinds of media, from electronic and printed magazines and books to branding packages and logos, signage and billboards, apps, websites, maps, and museum displays.
The visual communication curriculum prepares students to work in a rapidly evolving, technologically advanced profession. It explores typography, image generation, visual structure, color and composition, and motion design. Simply stated, it fosters an understanding of medium and message, of form and function.
- Read more about Commercial Art
Commercial art brings art to commerce. This is the distinction between it and fine art. Fine art – a painting or a sculpture, for example – exists for its own sake and appeals to the wide spectrum of human emotions. The primary purpose of commercial art – or advertising art, as it is sometimes called – is more practical than aesthetic.
Its focus is the promotion and sale of products and services. Its objective is to appeal to consumer emotions that drive customers to buy. The best commercial art is an engaging combination of message and medium, of information and inspiration.
Degree programs in the field prepare students to work as commercial artists – artists who appreciate business as much as art, who use their talents to create art for branding, marketing, advertising, and selling. Components of the curriculum include drawing, photography, color theory, design composition and layout, and typography.