Communication Design

From the page to the screen to the environment, graphic design is central to how we construct and convey meaning within communication design. The Communication Design Department provides students with a robust working knowledge of print design, information design, branding, and dynamic media (experience design). Our students learn by doing in studio classes led by a faculty of practicing designers and design educators, each accomplished in their area of expertise. The fundamentals of design remain consistent across media: color must enhance meaning, typography must be legible to communicate, and images must strengthen the message. Traditional manual skills such as hand lettering and drawing, and sophisticated graphics software are part of the spectrum of tools available to today’s graphic designers. Students are challenged to develop design solutions while experimenting with a wide range of media including package design, book and magazine layouts, interactive communication, letterpress, and the creation of graphic identities and branded experiences.

The communication design faculty inspires and advocates that students not only value structure, surface, and form, but also engagements and interactions of design with clients, audiences, and the culture at large. The essential operation of the Communication Design Department is to provide students with an educational environment in which to explore theoretical, practical and technical applications relative to a variety of design problems. Through a sequenced combination of required courses in the major, studio electives, technical workshops and computer lab-based courses, students are exposed to intensive critique as well as discussions and lectures. They learn to speak intelligently about their own work and the work of their classmates, in preparation for the increasingly team-based professional environment in which they will find themselves upon graduation.

Communication Design Faculty

Ryan Diaz, Assistant Professor
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, University of Washington

Gunta Kaza, Professor
BFA, College for Creative Studies
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Tatiana Gomez Gaggero, Assistant Professor
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design
BFA, Universidad de los Andes

Katherine Hughes, Assistant Professor
BA, Smith College
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Jan Kubasiewicz, Professor
MFA, Academy of Fine Arts, Lodz, Poland

Joseph Quackenbush, Professor
BA, Oakland University
MFA, Rhode Island School of Design

Martha Rettig, Associate Professor
BFA, Simmons College
MFA, Massachusetts College of Art and Design

Lisa Rosowsky, Professor
AB, Harvard University
MFA, Yale University

Programs