Visual Communication Arts: A.S.

Associate in Science

CIP Code: 50.0401

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Mission

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, design 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 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.

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, design history, interior design, art education, art therapy, gaming design, and fashion design.

Program Supervisor

Professor Patricia Evans, Chairperson
Applied Tech Building, Room AT 217
Telephone:  +1 (607) 778-5113
Email:  evanspm@sunybroome.edu

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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, Web Design, Motion Graphics, Fashion Design, Scientific & Medical Illustration, Industrial Design, Art Education, Art History, Design 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 analyze and evaluate the creative process. All students will complete an introductory Academic Planning course plus a set of core art & design courses: Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design, Introduction to Three-Dimensional Design, Beginning Drawing, Introduction to Computer Graphics, and multiple Art and Design History courses that provide important historical references and context. They will also complete an Effective Speaking course, Psychology, and Sociology course. Advanced courses will be completed including Painting, and Illustration or Advanced Computer Graphics.

They will complete General Education courses in the State University of New York Knowledge and Skills Areas of Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Social/Behavioral Sciences, Global Awareness, 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.