At Pratt, we see communications design as a close alignment of thinking and making. Our curriculum pairs critical, cultural observation with emerging technologies and tools to help you form your own design process.
Our multifaceted and interdisciplinary Communications Design courses happen within a studio culture that invites the exchange of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes. The Graphic Design emphasis offers upper-level studio courses in media and platforms, visual systems, motion, interactivity, branding, experience design, sustainability and inclusivity, and encouraging critical inquiry, collaborative processes, and experimentation. Electives provide opportunities to explore user experience, independent publishing, design writing, and creative coding.
The design studio is at the core of your educational experience at Pratt. It is a creative space and a community in microcosm, from which we connect to the larger community. We believe education takes place in the studio and the classroom and that the work in the studio benefits the student’s growth through an exchange of ideas, skills, and aspirations. Working with your peers in the studio deepens your knowledge of the opportunities inherent in form-making and design exploration.
Maker Spaces and Labs
Sustainability and material exploration drive our passion for making. We are hands-on and immersive; using our many production labs, any communication design student can discover, iterate and refine their investigations across different media. Learn more
Thesis
By the end of your senior year, you’ll complete a thesis that reflects and shapes your future practice. Your thesis is presented at the annual design show, a public event attended by industry leaders and potential employers. Pratt Shows 2023.
Study Abroad
Students outside the University of the Arts, London.
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can extend the boundaries of creativity. Study abroad programs are an integral part of the college experience, and Pratt has deep connections with university partners around the world. See where you can go.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Learn about resources.
Our Faculty
Pratt’s distinguished faculty of outstanding creative professionals and scholars share a common desire to fully develop each student’s individual potential and creativity. The faculty come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds representing the breadth of communication design’s complexity. This multiplicity of views and experiences provides for a tailored graduate education that is as unique as each of the students. See all Undergraduate Communications Design faculty and administrators.
Communication design alumni are leading thriving careers, addressing critical challenges and creating innovative work that reimagines our world, at a diverse selection of companies and institutions. They also go on to become entrepreneurs and principals leading their own studios and businesses.
Thinking seriously about Pratt? Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
Building your portfolio can be daunting. We’ll answer your questions and help you feel confident about the portfolio you submit with your application. Start building your portfolio, now.
Find yourself at home at Pratt: our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighbors. Check us out.
Social Media
Come be a part of our community. Join us for events, follow us online, and learn more about Pratt’s impact in the world.
Be sure to check out TYPE TONIGHT on September 19, 2025!
7:00-9:00 PM
207 Water Street
Join the typographically-inclined at @bowneprinters for an evening that celebrates a shared love of type, lettering, and the written word. The evening will begin with a casual social mixer, and follow with three presenters who will share works-in-progress and invite friendly, informal critique.
This welcoming, inclusive event is open to anyone who loves type—designers, artists, and curious newcomers alike. Whether you’re just starting out or already established, Type Tonight offers a space to connect, exchange ideas, and spark meaningful conversations.
Sign up today and be part of the conversation! Advanced registration is encouraged for this event but walkups will be accommodated as possible. Can’t stay the full two hours? No problem! Leaving a bit early is fine. Access to this event includes walking up and down a few stairs.
Tickets: https://tinyurl.com/46saxkzh
BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE GUEST LECTURE: SEPTEMBER 25
What happens when psychology meets design? 🧠✨ Dr. Yasmin Ghodse-Elahi, a behavioral scientist with a PhD in Social Psychology, leads the Behavioral Science team at U.S. Bank where science and design thinking come together to shape high-impact experiences. If we want to design human-centered experience, we need to understand what lies below the surface beyond what we can see - the underlying drivers of behavior that only behavioral science can help us uncover.
Join us as Dr. Yasmin takes us to the fascinating world of behavioral design where insights from psychology help designers craft more intuitive, precise, and innovative experiences.
WHEN: September 25, 2025, 5:00 PM
WHERE: Engineering Building 307
Yasmin Ghodse-Elahi, Ph.D.
Head of Behavioral Science @ US Bank
yasminelahi.com
Attention ComD students and recent grads! The Printed Matter NY Book Fair is this week at @momaps1, Thursday, September 11 through Sunday, September 14.
Featuring over 250 exhibitors (including interdisciplinary artists, collectives, small presses, self-publishing artists, and rare book dealers), @printedmatter_artbookfairs is a great opportunity to both shop and learn!
Advance registration strongly encouraged. https://www.momaps1.org/en/events/616-printed-matter-s-2025-ny-art-book-fair
#NYABF2025
See Stefan Sagmeister, Partner + Partners, Aryn Beitz and others discuss their process, their practice and life beyond Pratt.
Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011
Saturday, September 6
5pm-6pm Alumni Chat in the Auditorium
6pm-7pm Closing Reception Party in the Gallery (free food + drink)
FIRST TEN STUDENTS IN THE DOOR WILL GET FREE, SIGNED BOOKS
authored by ComD Illustration Alumna, Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernández
Pearls in the Sand is an illustrated children's book about turtle conservation efforts.
RSVP for FREE tickets here:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/process-in-practice-exhibition-panel-discussion-and-closing-reception-tickets-1633061072629?aff=oddtdtcreator
Process in Practice Exhibition - Panel Discussion and Closing Reception
Saturday, September 6th, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Pratt Manhattan Campus, 144 West 14th St, 2nd Floor
Get tickets here (FREE)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/process-in-practice-exhibition-panel-discussion-and-closing-reception-tickets-1633061072629?af
Join us from 5 pm to 6 pm for a moderated panel discussion with four of Pratt Institute’s alumni designers whose work was exhibited in the "Process in Practice" exhibition. This conversation will reflect on the role and critical importance of process and its integral role in the contemporary practice of design. The chair of Graduate Communications Design, Gaia Hwang, will serve as the moderator of the panel. The four alumni participating in the conversation will be Aryn Beitz, Stefan Sagmeister and Logan Hefferman and Devika Sen from Partners and Partners.
Immediately following the panel will be a closing reception celebrating the exhibition and honoring the curators and designers who created or were featured in the exhibition. This reception will take place from 6 pm to 7 pm in the gallery.
Process in Practice
Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of c2-curatorsquared, with exhibition design by alumna Aryn Beitz, Process in Practice dismantles the perception of design as merely the visual result, instead emphasizing research, experimentation, iteration, and invention. The exhibition reveals both the complexity of the design process and the diverse practices that define the field today. From branding and type design to social impact work and fine art, the alumni featured in Process in Practice span the breadth of design's potential. Their practices cross disciplines and geographies—from public art in New York to storytelling through children’s books in Mexico, and from type innovation in Bangkok to sustainability in publishing and user experience.
Aryn Beitz
Joseph Cuillier III
Vincent Drayne
David Good
Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernandez
Xinyi Li
Kadir Nelson
Snigdha Pamula
Partner & Partners [Greg Mihalko, Erik Riley, Zach Mihalko, Devika Sen, Lulu Johnson, Logan Heffernan]
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Stefan Sagmeister
Anuthin Wongsunkakon
Welcome back, COMD students!
In case you missed it, check your Pratt email for a list of amazing events to get your year started, including the Alumni Show closing on 9/6 (a free copy of @beatriz_beatriz_beatriz's new book to the first 10 students who attend the panel!), and Creative Works East @creativeworks from 10/2-10/4! Don't miss it!
Pratt Undergraduate Communications Design, along with @pratt_sod and @prattinstitute, will be hosting Creative Works East this fall! Join us for three days designed to empower your creative work and career—October 2-4, 2025.
This isn’t just another conference. @creativeworks is a gathering of independent thinkers, bold designers, visionary makers, and creative professionals ready to challenge the status quo—and build something better together.
Real community, real connections, real impact.
Learn more and register today: https://www.creativeworks.co/east
#CreativeWorksEAST #UnitedWeCreate #CreativeWorkersUnion #CWUnion #DesignConference
#BrooklynEvents #DesignersOfInstagram #CreativeCommunity1h
PROCESS IN PRACTICE
Communications Design Alumni Exhibition
Pratt Manhattan Gallery
144 W 14th St, New York, NY 10011
until September 6, 2025
Alumni from the graduate and undergraduate Communications Design programs reveal their working processes, highlighting the multiple paths a design practice can take.
The Communications Design curriculum embraces the multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature of communication design practice. Our courses and projects promote the rich exchange embodied in a studio culture that values the development of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes.
Second-year coursework introduces fundamental theories, methodologies, and skills central to communication design. Courses prompt students to define and explore a design process that engages research, historical and contemporary contexts, experimentation, audience, technology, and play in the construction of meaningful visual forms.
Upper-level studio courses prompt students to engage in increasingly complex projects that introduce media and platforms, visual systems, motion, interactivity, branding, and experience design. Beginning in the third year, students develop an individual focus or set of interests inside the larger discipline through courses in their chosen area of emphasis: graphic design or illustration. Electives both inside the department and throughout the Institute expand the core curriculum, allowing students to explore ways of thinking and making through their specific communication design interests.
Emphasis in Graphic Design
Students who select the Graphic Design Emphasis take a series of upper-level studio courses that explore topics and modes of practice, such as typographic and identity systems, visual rhetoric, interactivity, experience design, sustainability, and inclusivity. Projects encourage critical inquiry, collaborative processes, and experimentation with multiple technologies and platforms. Electives provide opportunities to explore a wide spectrum of specializations in graphic design, including user experience, motion graphics, independent publishing, design writing and creative coding.
In the Communications Design BFA program students will undertake a course of study where they will work towards:
Developing a professional, responsive and interdisciplinary perspective on the role of design and the designer and their relationship to economic, social, ecological, historical and political systems
Engaging with form, systems, experiences and interactions as intersecting modes of knowing, thinking, making and being, and the implications on people, communities and environments across scale
Situating making practices, research and theory in response to the legacies of design history and to global, local and personal narratives
Demonstrating fluency in challenging the use of tools, technologies and materials across media in consideration to the value systems they embody
Practicing exploration and experimentation of the interplay between thinking and making towards developing a diverse body of work
![Process in Practice Exhibition - Panel Discussion and Closing Reception
Saturday, September 6th, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Pratt Manhattan Campus, 144 West 14th St, 2nd Floor
Get tickets here (FREE)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/process-in-practice-exhibition-panel-discussion-and-closing-reception-tickets-1633061072629?af
Join us from 5 pm to 6 pm for a moderated panel discussion with four of Pratt Institute’s alumni designers whose work was exhibited in the "Process in Practice" exhibition. This conversation will reflect on the role and critical importance of process and its integral role in the contemporary practice of design. The chair of Graduate Communications Design, Gaia Hwang, will serve as the moderator of the panel. The four alumni participating in the conversation will be Aryn Beitz, Stefan Sagmeister and Logan Hefferman and Devika Sen from Partners and Partners.
Immediately following the panel will be a closing reception celebrating the exhibition and honoring the curators and designers who created or were featured in the exhibition. This reception will take place from 6 pm to 7 pm in the gallery.
Process in Practice
Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of c2-curatorsquared, with exhibition design by alumna Aryn Beitz, Process in Practice dismantles the perception of design as merely the visual result, instead emphasizing research, experimentation, iteration, and invention. The exhibition reveals both the complexity of the design process and the diverse practices that define the field today. From branding and type design to social impact work and fine art, the alumni featured in Process in Practice span the breadth of design's potential. Their practices cross disciplines and geographies—from public art in New York to storytelling through children’s books in Mexico, and from type innovation in Bangkok to sustainability in publishing and user experience.
Aryn Beitz
Joseph Cuillier III
Vincent Drayne
David Good
Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernandez
Xinyi Li
Kadir Nelson
Snigdha Pamula
Partner & Partners [Greg Mihalko, Erik Riley, Zach Mihalko, Devika Sen, Lulu Johnson, Logan Heffernan]
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Stefan Sagmeister
Anuthin Wongsunkakon](https://www.pratt.edu/design/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/07/540715768_18069761327141008_8541701187760687274_n-640x640.jpg)
![Process in Practice Exhibition - Panel Discussion and Closing Reception
Saturday, September 6th, 5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Pratt Manhattan Campus, 144 West 14th St, 2nd Floor
Get tickets here (FREE)
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/process-in-practice-exhibition-panel-discussion-and-closing-reception-tickets-1633061072629?af
Join us from 5 pm to 6 pm for a moderated panel discussion with four of Pratt Institute’s alumni designers whose work was exhibited in the "Process in Practice" exhibition. This conversation will reflect on the role and critical importance of process and its integral role in the contemporary practice of design. The chair of Graduate Communications Design, Gaia Hwang, will serve as the moderator of the panel. The four alumni participating in the conversation will be Aryn Beitz, Stefan Sagmeister and Logan Hefferman and Devika Sen from Partners and Partners.
Immediately following the panel will be a closing reception celebrating the exhibition and honoring the curators and designers who created or were featured in the exhibition. This reception will take place from 6 pm to 7 pm in the gallery.
Process in Practice
Curated by Ginger Gregg Duggan and Judith Hoos Fox of c2-curatorsquared, with exhibition design by alumna Aryn Beitz, Process in Practice dismantles the perception of design as merely the visual result, instead emphasizing research, experimentation, iteration, and invention. The exhibition reveals both the complexity of the design process and the diverse practices that define the field today. From branding and type design to social impact work and fine art, the alumni featured in Process in Practice span the breadth of design's potential. Their practices cross disciplines and geographies—from public art in New York to storytelling through children’s books in Mexico, and from type innovation in Bangkok to sustainability in publishing and user experience.
Aryn Beitz
Joseph Cuillier III
Vincent Drayne
David Good
Beatriz Gutiérrez Hernandez
Xinyi Li
Kadir Nelson
Snigdha Pamula
Partner & Partners [Greg Mihalko, Erik Riley, Zach Mihalko, Devika Sen, Lulu Johnson, Logan Heffernan]
Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya
Stefan Sagmeister
Anuthin Wongsunkakon](https://www.pratt.edu/design/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/07/540715768_18069761327141008_8541701187760687274_n.jpg)
