Design (BA)
Design is the order of form and the control of function; it is what designers do. Humans are conditioned to make decisions on the basis of appearance and contextual input, accepting or rejecting information and material goods in response to a variety of visual cues. Effective, user-centered design can do more than attract interest or manipulate perception: it can enable people. Good design and careful planning can promote understanding, simplify use, improve safety, instill confidence, add value, and create community.
At Notre Dame, undergraduate design education begins with immersion into the liberal arts curriculum. This social, philosophical, critical, ethical, and historical experience helps build a foundation of cultural understanding that naturally informs the creative and problem-solving methods. Responsible designers, consequently, approach the development process with sensitivity for human need, human aspiration, and the functional requirements for both production and implementation. At its best, design serves the spectrum of needs from individuals to constituencies in industry, society and the global environment.
Though design has been part of the Notre Dame curriculum since the early 1950s, students enjoy the advantages of a campus that provides access to current technologies. Technically advanced collaborative teaching spaces and digital labs support all student design activities, including an on-site 20-station 2D computer studio, a 16-station 3D computer studio, and a high performance digital imaging studio, all maintained by the services from Notre Dame’s Center for Creative Computing. In addition, a model shop provides rapid prototyping capabilities ranging from traditional hand tools to precision computer controlled fabrication and 3D printing. Intermediate and advanced level undergraduate students share an energized design community with defined studio spaces located in close proximity to all design-related resources and facilities in the Design Center at West Lake Hall.
Students enrolling in the BA degree program are required to complete a five-course core curriculum.
| Code | Title | Hours |
|---|---|---|
| ARST 10201 | Drawing I | 3 |
| ARST 10100 | 2-D Foundations | 3 |
| ARST 10601 | 3-D Foundations | 3 |
| Two Art History Courses | 6 | |
Students will select a concentration for the BA degree. For the Design major, students may choose to concentrate in Visual Communication Design or Industrial Design. The BA degree consists of 36 hours in Art and Design, of which 27–30 are in Studio/Design and 6–9 in Art History.
Visual Communication Design Concentration
At its most basic level, visual communication design is a creative process that combines the visual arts and technology to communicate ideas. In the hands of a talented designer, these ideas are transformed into visual communication that transcends mere words and pictures. By controlling color, type, movement, symbols, and images, the designer creates and manages the production of visuals designed to inform and persuade a specific audience. By combining aesthetic judgment with project management skills, designers develop visual solutions and communications strategies. The professional designer works with writers, editors, illustrators, photographers, code writers, and printers to complete compelling designs that effectively communicate a message.
At Notre Dame, the undergraduate visual communication design curriculum begins with a foundation in the liberal arts. Such a basis is a design student’s best path to meet and solve the varied communication challenges inherent in today’s complex world. Because a design solution may emerge from the humanities, an algorithm, or a scientific discovery, the curriculum provides a student with the opportunity to be firmly grounded in the fundamentals of design and the visual arts, while also taking courses in science, math, history, philosophy, and theology. As students progress through the tiered design program, they develop as a designer, as an intellectual, and as a moral person, prepared to address the social, ethical, and political circumstances influenced by the design profession.
At its core, the Notre Dame visual communication design program asserts that the designer can make a difference not only in the strategic plan of a business but also in the world. During their time on campus, students develop projects that aspire to positively influence the lives of culturally diverse people, critique the ethical dimensions of contemporary culture, and give visual form to complex social issues. As design professionals, Notre Dame graduates will be responsible for the future of our visual culture.
Industrial Design Concentration
Industrial designers give form to virtually all mass-manufactured products in our culture. They seek opportunity and advantage through identifying and solving problems. Their creative contributions impact the utility, appearance, and value of our tools and environment. Their most innovative solutions lie at an intersection of what is knowable and what is possible.
The industrial design profession demands excellent organizational skills, an awareness of visual and tactile aesthetics, human behavior, human proportion, material, process, and the responsible appropriation of resource, during and after use. Designers express conceptual proposals through a combination of well-developed drawing, physical modeling, computer modeling, writing, and verbal skills. Designers best serve the consumer through sensitive and innovative collaboration with art, science, engineering, anthropology, marketing, manufacturing, and ecology. Properly implemented, industrial design affords greater benefit, safety, and economy to all participants and recipients impacted by the product development cycle.
Notre Dame’s Industrial Design Program (NDID) maintains student chapter affiliation with the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). NDID interacts with regional, national, and international corporate design and consulting offices in the form of annual conferences, sponsored projects, field trips, and internships.
Professional Track in Design
With similar requirements to the general B.A. degree, the Bachelor of Arts–Professional Track in industrial design is a liberal arts degree comprised of 48 credit hours. The curriculum focuses on helping students build their portfolio in pursuit of a design position immediately after graduation.