Visual Communication Design

The Visual Communication Design (VCD) major involves the development of visual language systems for communication. The VCD department emphasizes practice, theory, methodology, and history, which are the foundations of the discipline. Students learn that the visual products of design are a conscious integration of the human factor with technology and aesthetics. The faculty encourages students to become designers who function as interpreters of human communication in a social context. This requires not only specific vocational tasks but also critical thinking and intellectual flexibility. Toward this goal, the program is intended to provide a broad educational background within a professional context.

Adding to this professional context, the VCD department also houses a professional design firm, Civic Design. It was established in 2001 serving Hartford area clients. The firm’s reputation has grown receiving regional press coverage and by winning professional design awards.

The Visual Communication Design Department is housed in the Harry Jack Gray Center and comprises two teaching classrooms and two departmental computer labs. The lab is equipped with Apple Macintosh computers, large-format color inkjet and black-and-white laser printers including a EPSON 9500, DVD burners, slide and flat-bed scanners, and digital cameras. Software used in VCD instruction includes the Adobe CS2 Suite, Macromedia Studio, QuarkXPress, and many others. A GS-15 plotter/cutter, donated by Gerber Scientific Products, is available to all art students to create vinyl type and graphics. Silkscreen printing equipment is also available.