Course Calendar

Advertising, Graphic Design, Illustration

In our complex world of expanding digital information, the need for effective communication has never been greater. Communicating information and ideas through insightful and compelling words and images is the primary focus of the Advertising, Graphic Design and Illustration programs.

Our faculty consists of many of Canada’s foremost practising communication design professionals, who bring current practiced-based studio standards into the classroom.

A structured curriculum ensures the development of advertising, graphic design and illustration skills to support design studio work, where precise and astute strategies, innovative concepts and captivating visuals are realized.

Proficiency in English comprehension and communication is critical in all areas of study in the communications disciplines. Students with less than adequate skills in this area are encouraged to supplement their program with assistance offered through the Writing & Learning Centre.

Please refer to the Design Programs: Introduction.

Graphic Design

This communication design program provides students with essential two-dimensional, three-dimensional and four-dimensional knowledge and skills required to create intelligent, compelling and effective visual communication. OCAD U’s Graphic Design Program has a strong focus on conceptual design thinking. Graphic designers are currently working in diverse industries to enhance and shape our visual environments and communication media. By engaging students in problem recognition and creative problem solving, our program goal is to enable students to create graphically effective, principled solutions that are conceptually strong, engaging, visually dynamic and appropriate to the many types of problems and graphic tasks they will be challenged to solve in their chosen career. Students will be introduced to the impact graphic design can have in context to local commerce, complex global economies, design for humanity, diverse cultures and our engagement with ever-changing societies.

In this program, students will be introduced to the fundamentals, aesthetics and design rigor essential to branding, communication design, packaging, editorial design, wayfinding, photography, book design, motion graphics, multimedia, web applications, systems design and strategic design thinking. Students have the opportunity to take studio courses in specific areas of interest such as: branding, editorial & publication design, guerrilla entrepreneurship, interactive communication, motion graphics, packaging design, typeface design, think tank, wayfinding/information systems, design process, typography, business, graphic production, and graphic image making.

Unique to OCAD U, students are encouraged to take diverse, interdisciplinary, general design courses with students from Industrial Design, Environmental Design and Material Art & Design to broaden their design knowledge. Of particular note are our Think Tank courses, where students from each discipline come together to engage with design issues and problems that challenge each student, in the class, to bring their individual program expertise to entire group.

Working closely with a faculty mainly composed of practising graphic designers, design and academic theorists, as well as visiting design professionals, students complete projects that cover a wide range of issues and applications. Students are introduced to the necessary principles of business and entrepreneurship to be successful in the field of design. In their final year, students work closely with faculty to develop processes, inquiries and outcomes that reflect their personal convictions and values.