Applying your creativity to shape a career communicating ideas and concepts.

The three-year Graphic Design Ontario College Advanced Diploma program helps you apply your creativity to communicating ideas and concepts in both print and interactive media.

Using a combination of theoretical and hands-on learning, you gain skills in design, typography, image, colour, coding, motion graphics, interaction and production from industry-connected faculty. You learn to be a problem-solver who can manage and execute visual design projects.

Whether learning design for the page or for the screen, you study industry-endorsed concepts and techniques. You also become an expert at communicating ideas to a client through:

• sketches
• prototypes
• storyboards
• interactive mock-ups

There is a strong focus on hands-on training, using industry-standard software tools, which will ensure you are career-ready upon graduation. Field trips and actual client projects are offered to bring the workplace into the classroom.

From your second year on, you become a student-member of the Registered Graphic Designers of Ontario. In your final semester, you embark on a six-week fieldwork placement that transitions you to industry. You work side-by-side with experienced professionals and gain networking contacts.

Upon graduation, you will have developed a design portfolio that showcases your creativity and problem-solving skills. You will display your work at the annual Grad Show exhibition.

Graduates may find employment in a(n):

• graphic design studio
• advertising agency
• motion graphics studio
• interactive/web design studio.

Graduates may also find work as an in-house designer for an organization or government, in the television, entertainment or game-development industry, or in freelance opportunities.

SUCCESS FACTORS

This program is well-suited for students who:

• Think visually and creatively and are conceptual thinkers.
• Enjoy solving visual communication problems.
• Enjoy sketching and drawing and using software tools.
• Enjoy working with type and imagery to communicate ideas.
• Are detail-oriented, organized and committed to coming up with the perfect design solution in their final products.
• Have critical-thinking and problem-solving skills.