In everyday life, we are all consumers of graphic design. From the products we buy and the books and magazines we read, to computer games and Internet graphics, graphic designers use a variety of media and technologies to target, engage, entertain, and motivate an audience. The graphic design professional today must possess the creative sensibilities, the communication skill, and the strategic business acumen to understand different audiences and multiple mediums. These visual and technical skills are enormously valued by the business community, advertising agencies, product designers, and design firms, each needing individuals who work fluently with multimedia and emerging communications technologies.

The Graphic Design program emphasizes strategic communication through a design process that includes research, analysis, conceptualization planning, and realization. This process leads to innovative visual communication solutions for contemporary design problems that are local to global in scope. Students integrate theory and method, culture and context, environmental and human factors, traditional and contemporary technologies, and visual aesthetics to develop comprehensive design strategies. These strategies are applied to physical artifacts (books, brochures, packaging), digital media (websites, CD-ROMs, video games, animation/film, kiosks, interface), and environments (exhibits, sign systems). The objective is to provide graphic design strategies that inform, educate, direct, and communicate effectively.

Graphics Design students have the opportunity to collaborate with Industrial Design students and participate in a program that focuses on integrated innovation and is an interdisciplinary enterprise with partners in the schools of business and engineering at ASU. The Graphic Design program is actively involved with the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), playing a critical role in the development and facilitation of national and regional initiatives.