The Visual Communication Arts degree prepares students for successful careers in Visual Communication and fosters students’ transfer to four-year senior institutions. These diverse and dynamic careers include Animation, Graphic Design, Game Design, New Media Design, Web Design, Motion Graphics, Fashion Design, Scientific & Medical Illustration, Industrial Design, Art Education, Art History, Art Therapy, Architecture, Video Production, Editorial Illustration, Fine Arts, Interior Design and Photography.
Broadly, students in the Visual Communication Arts degree program will learn the theory and practice of the dynamic between an image and an idea. They will acquire the conceptual and technical skills critical to the application of contemporary image-based communication in a global environment. They will, too, analyze and evaluate the creative process. All students will complete a set of core courses: Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design, Introduction to Three-Dimensional Design, Beginning Drawing, Introduction to Computer Graphics, and an art history elective. They will also complete a Speaking or Theater course—Effective Speaking or Introduction to Acting or Oral Interpretation—and a cardiovascular Physical Education course. Too, they will complete General Education courses in the State University of New York Knowledge and Skills Areas of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social/Behavioral Sciences, Foreign Language/Western Civilization/Other World Civilizations, Humanities, The Arts, and Basic Communication.
The broad and deep and highly innovative curriculum of the program will meet the diverse needs, both immediate and life-long, of individuals and entities within the local community and beyond it. The student-centered orientation of the program will enhance its accessibility.
Mission
1) The program will prepare students to pursue transfer into visual communication programs at baccalaureate degree granting institutions with majors in relevant fields, including, but not limited to, graphic design, animation, fine arts, illustration, art history, interior design, art education, art therapy gaming design and fashion design. This is consistent with other AS degree programs that focus on preparing students for transfer into four-year institutions.
Program Goals
1) Students will be able to understand and articulate the historical development of visual communication within the contexts of history, theory and fine and applied arts.
2) Students will be sufficiently prepared to transfer successfully into baccalaureate programs, including, but not limited to, graphic design, animation, fine arts, illustration, art history, interior design, art education, art therapy gaming design and fashion design.
Learning Outcomes
1) Students will be able to create original works of fine and applied arts.
2) Students will be able to articulate the role of visual communication within society, and implement the creative process to solve diverse visual communication problems.
3) Students will be able to conceive a visually unified and balanced design using various two and three-dimensional media that communicates a clear message to an audience.
4) Students will be able to articulate the fundamental elements and principals of formalist design that enable a visual message to meaningfully engage an audience.
5) Students will be able to articulate the differences between several visual communication models, including semiotics and formalism.
6) Students will be able to identify a broad range of visual communication products throughout history and relate them to the respective social, political, economic and philosophical contexts.
7) Students will be able to articulate how works of art and architecture reflect and relate to the natural and built environments of their time.
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