Welcome to Clarke University! Together, we will cultivate new ways of delivering the Clarke experiences supporting each other and our community. We stand as One Clarke, One Community.
Look around. You live in an ever-increasingly visual world. Graduates with art and graphic design degrees are poised to succeed in the 21st-century creative market. Today’s world is overloaded with more communication than ever. Everywhere you turn, there are print ads, billboards, web graphics, and display advertising. That’s why now, more than ever, it’s important that visual elements of business and advertising converge to be as strong as possible. This is the main focus of Clarke’s graphic design program.
Our Graphic design program offers a career-oriented program in which you’ll develop skills and knowledge of studio art along with graphic design. The ability to create an original concept through your technical abilities in drawing, sculpture, printmaking, and design will provide you with adaptive skills to solve complex visual communication problems. You’ll graduate from our degree in graphic design program professionally equipped as a 21st-century design thinker, maker, and entrepreneur. Does this sound like the path for you? Visit Dubuque, Iowa, and experience first-hand a day in the life of a Clarke graphic design major.
You’ll explore traditional studio techniques and media, digital production and editing software, and a strong contextual and art historical framework within the graphic design programs. As a graphic design degree student, you will study animation, typography, digital media illustration, drawing, and photography to round out your education. The graphic design degree program prepares Clarke students through progressive skill development and design experiences. Designers combine traditional and digital media to convey meaning through the organization of text and image, and to visually communicate their ideas for a variety of service-related and social-design challenges.
If you’re looking for a career that’s always in demand, pursuing a degree through our graphic design program is an ideal fit for you. Graphic designers are needed for all types of companies to produce marketing materials, everything from logos and web design to brochures and packaging materials.
While preparing for a variety of careers available in the graphic design and digital media fields, you’ll create a digital portfolio to skyrocket your odds of excellent job placement after graduation.
In the digital media and graphic design degree programs, you’ll gain progressive skill development and design experiences so you can impart meaning through the organization of text and image. Coursework employs industry-standard digital software and tools which combined with expert faculty guidance, will empower you with design-thinking research skills and a nimble, creative aptitude to visually communicate ideas for a variety of service-related, social-design and corporate-inspired challenges.
At some point, you might have wondered how to become a graphic designer. Graphic designers reside at the juncture of art and business. They translate conceptual ideas into tangible visuals and are often lauded for their ability to elevate the status of a company or organization. The goal of our unique Graphic Design school is to provide an inclusive understanding of the field of design – from print publishing to interface design and more. You’ll sharpen your eye for aesthetics through projects, critiques, and the study of popular culture. In addition to technical proficiency and creative development, your education will help you hone real-world skills such as media assimilation, marketing, and branding.
Real-world experiences start from the first year of studies. Students serve as designers and partners locally in Iowa and beyond in larger cities. Students have worked within the Dubuque Chamber of Commerce YEA (Young Entrepreneurs Academy), joined with area professionals in the Design Hack-a-thon at Creative Adventure Lab, traveled to Des Moines for AIGA conferences as well as Art Expo Chicago, took van trips to the artist book collection in Madison, WI, and learned type history the Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, WI. In addition, each year, Clarke University graphic design students win recognition at the American
Advertising Federation (AAF) Dubuque ADDY Awards. Many move on to win at regional and national level ADDYs as well.
Cool Classes within the Graphic Design Degree Program
BRAND IDENTITY SYSTEMS — Develop brand elements such as logos, corporate identities, packaging, and advertisements.
INTERACTIVE DESIGN — Interactive Design is centered on human/user interaction, web design, media development, and visual coding.
ART + DESIGN METHODS — You learn creative problem-solving processes as well as art and design methods through digital media and analog media.
Applicants are considered on an individual basis. Apply to Clarke today to begin your journey.
Art + Design offers renewable Fine Arts Talent Awards for excellence in performance. Ask about other financial support available through the admissions office.
Career-Ready Internships
What makes Clarke’s program one of the best graphic design schools in the Midwest? Graphic Design degree-seeking students acquire hands-on experience in a required internship, many of which lead to full-time positions in the art industry. You’ll find the experience of building a portfolio and professional practices is integrated into every design project. Internship and career preparation is infused throughout all coursework. While one is required, most students complete two internships in varied design environments. These can be completed locally here in Iowa, or beyond and nationally in a digital media, remote fashion. This past year, graphic design major students interned with McCullough Creative, Buzz Creative, Gigantic Design, Cottingham and Butler Insurance, Kendall Hunt Publishing, Cartegraph, Dubuque County Conservation Board, and the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium. These unique experiences combine to offer one of the best graphic design programs available.
Let’s Talk Jobs
A degree in our graphic design major can lead to many careers, including:
I believe that teaching graphic design as a process-oriented activity helps students to develop life-long skills of thinking and tinkering and to develop a process that maintains creative curiosity across disciplines and technologies.
I love to take students abroad and help them learn new things, such as how to navigate the Paris Metro or the London Tube. I encourage them to experience a sense of awe in unexpected places.
My ultimate goal is that, through developing their artist selves, students will become self-aware, empathetic, and have a clearer realization of who they aspire to become, as well as their relationship to their world.
Approaching course content with excitement adds an energetic atmosphere. As a teaching artist, I share insights into the practices of a working artist. Through my dedication and accomplishments, students are inspired to find their artistic voice.
Many art students study abroad during their time at Clarke. Walk through museums in Florence, study Japanese art in Nagasaki, or paint landscapes in Wales.
Meet fellow art majors at the new student picnic, visit museums in Chicago, and exhibit your work both on campus and locally downtown.
Get internships at local businesses, marketing and design agencies, software companies, and museums.
The main painting and drawing studio is a beautiful space with skylight and windows on three sides offering views of the Mississippi River. The sculpture and ceramics studios have been renovated in recent years with the addition of a wood shop, welding equipment, and new gas kiln.
Through your Clarke experience, you will be involved in many different activities that will guide you on your college journey. By your senior year, you will have a résumé of all your awesome involvements packaged and ready for your first interview.
What can I do with a degree in this major?
I have two passions: baseball and art. It’s a bit of an odd combo, but Clarke helps me make it work. I also enjoy the one-on-one time with art department faculty.
I currently work at a small design studio where I am responsible for everything from art direction to print production. The education I acquired at Clarke successfully prepared me for this position.
I was recruited by staff at the Swiss Valley Nature Center to assist with a new graphic signature for their brochure map. This led to an internship in finding nature parks across Dubuque County. I just learned that I am one of four Clarke Art + Design majors to have drawings selected for the Iowa Public Radio Coloring Book.
Students work one-on-one with art professors who are practicing artists, well-known in their fields.
Percent of our graphic design students get hands-on experience in a required internship, many of which lead to full-time positions in the art industry.
Each year, Clarke University graphic design students win recognition at the American Advertising Federation (AAF) Dubuque ADDY Awards.
