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 exchange of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes. You’ll explore meaningful visual forms through research, historical and contemporary contexts, experimentation, audience, technology, and play. The Illustration emphasis includes studio courses in advanced storytelling, socio-political commentary, and authorship. Electives include graphic novels, animation and 3D modeling, independent publishing, production design and character design.
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 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
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 Fashion Design’s complexity. This multiplicity of views and experiences provide for a tailored graduate education that is as unique as each of the students. See all Communications Design faculty and administrators.
Communication designers 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.
Pizza Kickoff for UG ComD students, faculty and staff. Join us for pizza + cupcakes between classes on Tuesday, Sept 11 in PS 310, from 12 noon to 1:30pm. Hope to see you there!
Mike Schnaidt is the Creative Director of Fast Company. He’s the author of Creative Endurance, a guide for overcoming obstacles. In this craft-focused talk, Schnaidt goes behind the scenes of his creative direction at Men’s Health and Fast Company, and dives into the process of writing his book, Creative Endurance. From this talk, you'll sharpen your creative process and strategize your career.
Please stop by ARC E-02 on September 9th at 6:00pm to hear from Mike.
The event is open to the public; registration link in bio.
The Undergraduate Communications Design Lecture Series will feature @8ballcommunity and @secret_riso_club. Please join us if you can; this event is open to the public on Thursday, April 18th.
The event will be held on Brooklyn campus at ARC E-02. Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm.
Visuals designed: @nin.alu
Typeface: Générale Station by Ariel Martin Perez, Tunera Type Foundry
The committee this year: @melanixe, @maimaimuai, @nin.alu, @jennykim.design, @saharkhraibani, @sthurer, and Nene.
Link in bio for more info. 💼
The Undergraduate Communications Design Lecture Series will feature Can Yang. Please join us if you can; this event is open to the public on Wednesday, April 3rd.
The event will be held on Brooklyn campus at Memorial Hall. Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm.
Visuals designed: @drunkenlobster.o
The committee this year: @melanixe, @maimaimuai, @nin.alu, @jennykim.design, @saharkhraibani, @sthurer, and Nene.
Link in bio for more info. 💼
Undergraduate Communications Design Lecture Series will be having Sam Rolfes. Please join us if you can; this event is open to the public.
The event will be held on Brooklyn campus at Memorial Hall. Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm.
Visuals designed by: @melanixe
The committee this year: @melanixe, @maimaimuai, @nin.alu, @jennykim.design, @saharkhraibani, @sthurer, and Nene.
Link in bio for more info. 🤖
We are thrilled to introduce you to Oscar Salguero, and the captivating concept of the Interspecies Library!
Join us for this remarkable talk that Oscar will give on Thursday, February 29th, at 6pm in Memorial Hall
&
visit the exhibition opening February 26 - March 8 in the School of Design’s Design Gallery. Hours 11am - 7pm.
Link in bio !!!
Interspecies Library is an independent archive dedicated to the curation of contemporary artists’ books that explore interspecies futures: the manifold unseen and potential relationships that flourish among diverse beings. A wide variety of printed materials are housed in the archive, including books, pamphlets, zines, posters, ephemera, and other artifacts sourced from artists and independent publishers worldwide.
The collection is curated by researcher Oscar Salguero, and is currently located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in the home of the curator. The Library was founded in 2019 and opened its doors to the public in 2020 with the show Human Nonhuman, and has since acted as a resource and meeting place for cross-disciplinary artists and researchers. Interspecies Library has exhibited at the Center for Book Arts (Interspecies Futures [IF], 2021) and has facilitated a series of pop-up library events across Europe.
Designs by: Darla Warlick @darladraws
Angel Lizardi @ilycabra
📥 Undergraduate Communications Design Lecture Series will be having Han Gao of @Workbyworks Please join us if you can, this event is open to the public.
The event will be held on Brooklyn campus at Memorial Hall. Doors open at 5:30pm, event starts at 6:00pm. This event will be in Mandarin.
Visuals designed by: @melanixe
The committee this year: @melanixe, @maimaimuai, @nin.alu, @jennykim.design, @saharkhraibani, @sthurer, and Nene.
Link in bio for more info. 💼
🎉Undergraduate Communications Design Lecture Series will be having Mu Pan @mupan1911. Please join us if you can, this event is open to the public.
The event will be held in ARC-E02 this Thursday November 30th doors open at
6:30PM and the event starts at 7:00pm
Link in bio for more info. 😊
The committee this year @jennykim.design @maimaimuai, @melanixe, @nin.alu, @saharkhraibani @sthurer and Nene.
Poster designed by: @jennykim.design
Please join us for a book launch and conversation between authors Peter Hall and Patricio Dávila with Lize Mogel,
celebrating the publication of "Critical Visualization: Rethinking the representation of data."
Pratt Institute, Higgins Hall
61 St. James Pl, Brooklyn, NY
Friday, March 31, 2023
6–7:30pm, doors open at 5:30pm
Eventbrite registration, link in bio
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 time-based media, visual systems, branding, and installations. 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 throughout the visual arts.
Emphasis in Illustration
Students who select the Illustration Emphasis take a series of upper-level studio courses that explore topics particularly relevant to image-based communication, such as advanced storytelling, socio-political commentary, and authorship. Upper-level courses related to the illustration emphasis encourage experimentation with multiple technologies, platforms, and techniques. Electives provide opportunities to explore a wide spectrum of contemporary illustration practice, including graphic novels, animation and 3D modeling, independent publishing, production design and character design
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
![We are thrilled to introduce you to Oscar Salguero, and the captivating concept of the Interspecies Library!
Join us for this remarkable talk that Oscar will give on Thursday, February 29th, at 6pm in Memorial Hall
&
visit the exhibition opening February 26 - March 8 in the School of Design’s Design Gallery. Hours 11am - 7pm.
Link in bio !!!
Interspecies Library is an independent archive dedicated to the curation of contemporary artists’ books that explore interspecies futures: the manifold unseen and potential relationships that flourish among diverse beings. A wide variety of printed materials are housed in the archive, including books, pamphlets, zines, posters, ephemera, and other artifacts sourced from artists and independent publishers worldwide.
The collection is curated by researcher Oscar Salguero, and is currently located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in the home of the curator. The Library was founded in 2019 and opened its doors to the public in 2020 with the show Human Nonhuman, and has since acted as a resource and meeting place for cross-disciplinary artists and researchers. Interspecies Library has exhibited at the Center for Book Arts (Interspecies Futures [IF], 2021) and has facilitated a series of pop-up library events across Europe.
Designs by: Darla Warlick @darladraws
Angel Lizardi @ilycabra](https://www.pratt.edu/design/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2023/07/429147779_1386854801947392_5519865163084377653_n-640x640.jpg)
![We are thrilled to introduce you to Oscar Salguero, and the captivating concept of the Interspecies Library!
Join us for this remarkable talk that Oscar will give on Thursday, February 29th, at 6pm in Memorial Hall
&
visit the exhibition opening February 26 - March 8 in the School of Design’s Design Gallery. Hours 11am - 7pm.
Link in bio !!!
Interspecies Library is an independent archive dedicated to the curation of contemporary artists’ books that explore interspecies futures: the manifold unseen and potential relationships that flourish among diverse beings. A wide variety of printed materials are housed in the archive, including books, pamphlets, zines, posters, ephemera, and other artifacts sourced from artists and independent publishers worldwide.
The collection is curated by researcher Oscar Salguero, and is currently located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in the home of the curator. The Library was founded in 2019 and opened its doors to the public in 2020 with the show Human Nonhuman, and has since acted as a resource and meeting place for cross-disciplinary artists and researchers. Interspecies Library has exhibited at the Center for Book Arts (Interspecies Futures [IF], 2021) and has facilitated a series of pop-up library events across Europe.
Designs by: Darla Warlick @darladraws
Angel Lizardi @ilycabra](https://scontent-ord5-2.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/429147779_1386854801947392_5519865163084377653_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=l794VM4qqW4Q7kNvgGZL5dF&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-2.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=ANFBB2bLtlp7QTsixRXdTHn&oh=00_AYDdYiBgPauBlR6bllm5RCsMYAQ1n8lXj57v85EeFhyJUA&oe=66E7EA0E)
![We are thrilled to introduce you to Oscar Salguero, and the captivating concept of the Interspecies Library!
Join us for this remarkable talk that Oscar will give on Thursday, February 29th, at 6pm in Memorial Hall
&
visit the exhibition opening February 26 - March 8 in the School of Design’s Design Gallery. Hours 11am - 7pm.
Link in bio !!!
Interspecies Library is an independent archive dedicated to the curation of contemporary artists’ books that explore interspecies futures: the manifold unseen and potential relationships that flourish among diverse beings. A wide variety of printed materials are housed in the archive, including books, pamphlets, zines, posters, ephemera, and other artifacts sourced from artists and independent publishers worldwide.
The collection is curated by researcher Oscar Salguero, and is currently located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, in the home of the curator. The Library was founded in 2019 and opened its doors to the public in 2020 with the show Human Nonhuman, and has since acted as a resource and meeting place for cross-disciplinary artists and researchers. Interspecies Library has exhibited at the Center for Book Arts (Interspecies Futures [IF], 2021) and has facilitated a series of pop-up library events across Europe.
Designs by: Darla Warlick @darladraws
Angel Lizardi @ilycabra](https://scontent-ord5-1.cdninstagram.com/v/t51.29350-15/429050524_406663121917210_5425723063400440819_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=18de74&_nc_ohc=kRAA2x-0PBcQ7kNvgHOhMIO&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.cdninstagram.com&edm=ANo9K5cEAAAA&_nc_gid=ANFBB2bLtlp7QTsixRXdTHn&oh=00_AYDUAJ5pGRT9cG_sVSzVARIWmNbj0BFcU-cU2NjL4nbuaA&oe=66E7F273)
