Graphic Design
Graphic designers are visual storytellers. They engage and communicate through logos and brand identities, apps and websites, publications and product packaging, wayfinding and signage, ads and commercials.
Well-designed graphics can stand in for a thousand words, sharing meaning and emotion with just a glance. At Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, you’ll not only learn to be an effective designer, but also a bold, innovative creator, thinker, and problem solver. By the time you graduate, you’ll feel empowered to take ownership of your ideas and your creations as you share them with the world.
Ranked 7th in Graphic Design Programs in Pennsylvania in 2022
Ranked 18th in "Best Colleges for Design in America" in 2023
Ranked 30th in Graphic Design Schools in 2021
our program
Why Graphic Design at PCA&D?
One-on-one instruction is our hallmark. With faculty guidance and inspiration, you’ll tackle real-world projects with immediate impact, building your portfolio to launch your career. You’ll learn in the best small city to live in the U.S., in a vibrant arts-rich environment with more than 125 galleries and creative spaces.
Our students are regularly named GD Students to Watch and win national GDUSA design competitions. All coursework incorporates some form of portfolio review and/or critique with a faculty of professional, working designers to prepare you for receiving feedback in career settings and learning how to implement suggested improvements. Each year your faculty assesses the curriculum to make sure you’ll learn only the most relevant skills and software you’ll need to succeed after graduation.
Customize your program
PCA&D students have the opportunity to explore multiple interests by incorporating a minor or certificate into their major studies. Expanding your skill sets to cross disciplines will make you more appealing to future employers and broaden your potential career path.
Tyler Handa ’23
PCA&D really pushed me to get out of my comfort zone a bit more than I wanted. It really is all about being introduced to as many things as possible. We latch on to certain things that we might learn we are good at and then take them even further."
Build Your Network
Join our student chapter of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), the oldest professional association in design. Meet monthly for student-led critiques, portfolio review preparation, and brown bag lunch speakers. Club members have access to studio tours, national speakers, and portfolio reviews in association with the Philadelphia professional chapter.
Design in a Day
Hosted by AIGA, this beloved annual event benefits our local non-profit community as students devote a day offering free design services for these organizations. Strengthen community relationships by stepping into the role of design professional alongside clients, faculty, and alumni to create impactful campaigns, logos, posters, motion graphics, and more. Previous participants include: the Friendship Gallery, YWCA, Big Brothers Big Sisters, and Lancaster Public Library.
Immersive Learning
Field trips like the New York City Pub Crawl to visit the city’s major publishing houses, local studio visits, and tours of regional advertising companies all offer networking opportunities that have resulted in job offers for our graduates.
Meet the Experts
Previous nationally renowned guest speakers include Gail Anderson, Mary Kate McDevitt, Tom Whelan, Zipeng Zhu, and Jeff DeSantis. Through partnerships with the Central PA AIGA chapter and Society of Design, we’ve also hosted speakers like Aaron Draplin and Timothy Goodman, Stefan Sagmeister, Jessica Hische, Pentagram partners Chip Kidd and Paula Scher, and Design Army.
Build Your Portfolio
Most class assignments are real-world projects for regional clients, like greeting cards for the Mayor’s Office, merchandise for the Lancaster Barnstormers, book covers for Sunbury Press, and marketing materials for Caron Treatment Centers. Explore communicating information about topics like organ donation, pet adoption, emergency preparedness, and racial injustice, and watch the impact your work can make.
Step Into Your Career
Each senior gets their own personal studio space to develop and create their thesis: a passion project that could involve branding a cafe, product design, public awareness or social justice campaigns, gaming exhibitions – anything you could dream of. Your thesis will debut to the public at our annual Senior Show during commencement celebrations in May. Seniors also have the unique opportunity to brand the Senior Show by developing campaign images and pitching them to a panel of professional designers in the fall.
What will your thesis teach you?
- Time Management
- Organization
- Project Management
- Design Development (from concept to published piece)
- Pitching a Concept
- Taking Critique
- Visual Communication
- Adaptability
internships & careers
Where could your creative life take you?
Emily Phillips ’19
Internships are a required element of the Graphic Design program, often completed during the summer before the senior year. Leave your internship with connections to lifelong mentors or even a pre-graduation job offer. To name a few recent placements: Patagonia, Martha Stewart Omnimedia, and Armstrong World Industries.
As an intern, you could create interactive (web, digital, social) and mixed reality (Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, etc.) experiences for clients such as National Geographic, Oxygen, CBS, Disney Nickelodeon, FX, and History Channel. Students of any level have the opportunity to complete a paid internship on campus with The Agency. Take on projects for the College as well as those for community non-profit organizations and local start-up businesses with small budgets.
These real-world experiences in and out of the classroom will build skill sets allowing you to land positions in:
- Packaging and product design
- Government agencies
- Multimedia companies
- Healthcare institutions
- Publishers
- Film studios
- Industrial design firms
- Marketing and public relations departments
- Advertising agencies
- Printing companies
- Architectural firms
- And many, MANY more…
Your adaptability will also prepare you for emerging fields and jobs that don’t exist yet as user experience and interface design continues to evolve.
where are Alumni now?
Graphic Design graduates pursue careers in a variety of fields. Click below to explore recent stories from the program.
Keeping up with Ogilvy designer Dyneisha Gross ’20, Graphic Design
If you want to keep up with 2020 graduate Dyneisha Gross, get yourself organized and buckle up: It’s going to be a quick takeoff and a busy, busy agenda. Gross earned her BFA in Graphic Design, magna cum laude, in 2020, and has landed at the Washington, D.C., office of
Department faculty
A faculty of working designers
As experienced working professionals with strong ties to resources and opportunities in the field, your faculty assign competitive, real-world projects to enhance your portfolio with professional work well before you graduate.
Maria Hostetter ’16, Department Chair
Maria earned a diploma in Communication Art and Graphic Design from the Pennsylvania School of Art and Design in 1993, studied Art Education at Millersville University, then returned to PCA&D to earn her BFA in Graphic Design in 2016. Since then, she’s guided students, first as a member of the College’s continuing education programming and then as a member of the Graphic Design faculty.
Austin Taylor ’24
HOW TO Apply
Make your creative life, a way of life
While you’re still deciding on a school, go ahead and start an application, it’s free! Submitting an application isn’t a commitment to PCA&D but it helps us get to know you better. Or you can start by submitting 8-10 pieces of your art to help us assess your potential.