Skip to this page's content

Design

Design Banner

About

Graphic Design at Simmons is a perfect example of how the college mission works. We give students the liberal arts background expected of any intelligent, socially responsible and active member of society, while providing them with skills for a profession. Our design students pursue a variety of careers, thanks to the coupling of hands-on design production and a strong foundation of design theory.   Simmons Graphic Designers leave the college with broad and varied real-world experience and the knowledge of core design principles and typography around which we have based our program.

Two questions frequently arise about design at Simmons:

Why isn't Design in the Art Department?

Design is in the Communications Department because it often requires collaboration with the other professional disciplines that are also in the department — PR & Marketing, Journalism, and Integrated Media. A challenge of having Design within the Communications major is that students don't always know it exists until they've been at Simmons a few semesters. They hear about Communications, but don't realize that Design is a part of it. We encourage you to come up to the 3rd floor in the Lefavour Building to look around and ask questions about the program and to start taking courses in the major as soon as you can.

Are there advantages to having Graphic Design in a liberal arts college as opposed to an art school?

Employers like designers with broad backgrounds. They want efficient, well organized individuals who understand the nature of the converging communications industry. They hope to hire designers who can work collaboratively and be flexible designers as well as writers and editors. The skills the designer needs today are various— in psychology, sociology, information design and art, all which Simmons offers. In the Communications major we offer capstone experiences, including our Studio 5 course, where students from all tracks come together to work in teams on professional projects for nonprofit organizations. Graphic design students benefit from all of the Communications tracks, learning about PR and Marketing, media arts, and developing essential writing skills while earning their Bachelor's Degree.

We invite you to look further on this website to see examples of what students have created in the Design concentration over the past few years.

recently added student work

TangramLetterform StudiesHockney CollageHockney CollageHockney CollageHuman Rights PosterHuman Rights PosterTypebookWord PlayTypeface PosterTwo-sided Typeface PosterTwo-sided Typeface PosterIdentity SystemExpressive Typography: CDExpressive Typography: CDStampsStampsStampsResumeMulti-page documentMagazineMagazinePortfolio Website with ViewbookWayfinding ProjectLarge BookInterpretation of Independent Study: Identity Kit