Term 1 immerses you in the skills, theories, and techniques needed to understand digital design. Essential skills are reinforced through design iteration, resulting in your first portfolio pieces, including a typographic design treatment and a 30-second audio-visual television commercial. You leave your first term with a thorough grounding in communication, interactive, and motion design.

Term 2 extends your knowledge to user experience, interactive narrative, design history and appreciation, and the application of visual design principles. You will learn the fundamentals of typography and print design, gain knowledge of how to interpret wireframes to create an interface design reflective of the tone, language and style of your project, discover HTML and CSS, and create a "talking head" piece that expands your motion skills. You'll participate in your first Digital Design Slam, working with teams from all levels in the program to produce exceptional results in a tight, focused timeframe.

In Term 3, you delve into more advanced topics with increasingly sophisticated tools and design processes. You will undertake a major team project: an information graphics piece which becomes a major component of your portfolio. To manage these projects, you learn to apply agile project management techniques, specifically scrum management. In addition, you will deliver two additional individual projects: a branding project including packaging design and a title sequence.

Term 4 concentrates on advanced classes emphasizing core concepts while enabling you to create more work for your portfolio. You can extend your knowledge of branding, understand information architecture for devices, learn how to create a title sequence, and go deeper into 3D, among many other concepts and techniques. This term's Project Management course guides you through the process of selecting, planning, and pitching your final project, which will serve as the cornerstone of your portfolio.

Term 5 focuses your studies to match a specific career profile – Communication Designer, Information Architect, Interactive Designer, Motion Designer or Project Manager - while working one-on-one each week with your industry or faculty mentor to bring your final project to completion. By executing a comprehensive design brief, you are exposed to the intricacies of studio-scale productions. Electives in this term give you the advanced techniques to shine in the industry while also affording you the chance to get additional assistance with your final project - all within the context of the senior class studio.

Term 6, your final term, focuses on you and your professional status in the industry. Working with experts in portfolio development, employment strategy, and the business, law, and ethics of design, you'll develop and create your unique professional identity and begin a dialogue with outside companies. In the portfolio review session, you'll work directly with outside industry experts to refine both your portfolio and your communications strategy, giving you the best possible launch pad for your design career. Your student journey culminates with Appetizers, our networking event which brings you face to face with a design industry that wants to meet you.