Visual Communication Design (Graphic Design)

Graphic design students working on an assignment in the Design Lab.

Visual communication/graphic design shapes the way we see and understand the world by giving form to the objects, communications, and environments that make up our everyday experiences. Through typography, image making, and visual storytelling, designers visualize the issues that permeate our society, and pose innovative solutions with the potential to affect change on a local, national, and global scale.

At LMU, we cultivate designers who identify and explore the most pressing problems of our world. We believe the greatest potential for graphic design goes far beyond its history of service to consumerism. The ubiquity of design and its potential to transform our world has never been greater so does design's ability to influence the quality of our lives. LMU's graphic designers take a compassionate approach, promoting social justice and realizing societal change through social discourse, community building, and entrepreneurship.

Major Requirements

A total of 78 semester hours: 32 semester hours of lower division courses and 46 semester hours of upper division courses.

  • 32 semester hours of lower division courses: 24 semester hours of Studio Arts and 8 semester hours of Art History.

    Studio Arts Foundations

    • ART 1001 Foundation I 4 semester hours
    • ART 1002 Foundation II 4 semester hours
    • ART 1003 Foundation III 4 semester hours
    • ART 1010 Freshman Workshop in Studio Arts 2 semester hours

    Visual Communication Design Lower Division Requirements

    • ART 1020 Portfolio Workshop in Studio Art 2 semester hours
    • ART 1660 Design Literacy: Two-Dimensional Design 4 semester hours
    • ART 2668 Typography I 4 semester hours
    • ARHS 2510 Social Design 4 semester hours
    • Lower Division Art History electives 4 semester hours
      Choose one class from:
      • ARHS 2000 Foundations of Western Art 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 2002 Art and Society: Early Christian to Early Modern 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 2004 Modernism 4 semester hours
  • 46 semester hours of upper division courses: 38 semester hours of Studio Arts and 8 semester hours of Art History.

    • ART 3602 Design Concept to Form 4 semester hours
    • ART 3603 Experimental Typography 4 semester hours
    • ART 3660 Visual Communication Design I 4 semester hours
    • ART 3668 Typography II 4 semester hours
    • ART 3695 Design Entrepreneurship 4 semester hours
    • ART 4660 Visual Communication Design II 4 semester hours
    • ART 4668 World Typography 4 semester hours
    • ART 4696 Design Praxis 2 semester hours
    • ART 4960 Senior Design Thesis 4 semester hours
    • ART 3xxx or 4xxx Upper Division elective 4 semester hours
    • ARHS 3560 History of Design 4 semester hours
    • ARHS Non-Western elective 4 semester hours
      Choose one class from:
      • ARHS 3311 Pre-Columbian Art 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 3331 Arts of Africa 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 3341 Arts of Islam 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 3351 Arts of Asia 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 4301 Arts of India 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 4303 Arts of China 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 4305 Arts of Southeast Asia 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 4307 Arts of Japan 4 semester hours or
      • ARHS 4998 Special Studies 4 semester hours (if a non-Western topic is to be studied)