Graphic Design
Location: Liberal Arts 5, Third Floor
Program Head: Sunook Park
Visual Communication (Graphic Design) at California State University Long Beach, covers graphic design, advertising art direction, motion graphics and web design. It has been ranked among the top eight of over three hundred programs in a national survey of professional designers, and was featured in Novum Gebrauchgrafik, a leading German design magazine. In addition to a demanding curriculum in graphics, majors in the discipline obtain a basic liberal arts education for an intellectual base to problem solving.
Our primary emphasis is on creative solutions to visual problems, combining research, concept, design and reproduction required for the intended audience. Appropriate attention is also given to development of computer, drawing, verbal and marketing skills.
Our program has received numerous awards from the New York Art Directors Show, The One Show, the Clio Awards, Graphis, the American Institute of Graphic Arts Shows, Print, Art Direction and How magazines, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, National Paper Box Manufacturers Association, Gilbert Paper Company, and Domtar Paper Company, among others.
The CSULB Visual Communication Workshop provides selected majors with actual budgeted design jobs for non-profit organizations. Students work with clients and printers as they carry projects to completion. The Internship program provides all our majors with extensive on-site experience in outstanding local design groups, advertising agencies, motion graphics and web design firms. These internships often lead to employment upon graduation. Our alumni can be found at every level of the western design and advertising community, as owners, partners, creative directors, art directors, web and motion graphics designers.
Inclusions of alumni work are commonplace in leading professional journals such as: Communication Arts, Graphis, CMYK, HOW, Step-By-Step and Print. The distinguished faculty consists of four full-time professional designers, an art director and a creative director, and fourteen part-time working professional instructors.
The Bachelor of Fine Arts degree program in Visual Communications consisting of 132 units, prepares students for professional careers in design studios, advertising agencies, corporate design departments, motion graphics firms, web site design companies and free-lance consulting, as well as for graphic design positions with industrial and interior design firms.
As creative problem-solvers, graphic designers deal with the transmission of ideas, information and subjective impressions through the use of print, film, video and computer media. Among those studied are marketing, educational, recreational and public interest applications. The program offers a balanced curriculum starting with lower division courses in color, layout, typography, rendering, life drawing, art and design history. The upper division students undertake individual and group problems utilizing advertising and graphic techniques, typography, photography, illustration and computer technology.
While perfecting their skills, students simultaneously build portfolios designed to demonstrate their creativity, imagination and professional competence. Students should complete all of their lower division courses in addition to 318, 322A, 324, 331, 326, 386 A & B before applying for the BFA program. The key courses for building a portfolio are: 318, 322A, 324, 331, 326 and 386A & B. It is acceptable to apply after completing four of the prior courses mentioned.
The Visual Communications major is impacted (over-enrolled) at CSULB. Therefore, to gain entry into the major a student must:
- Have at least a "B" average in 15 units of art or design (which must include work in two-dimensional design [Art 121] and beginning drawing [Art 181] or their equivalents).
- Submit a portfolio for formal evaluation, consisting of a maximum of 15 pieces of actual work, which could include multimedia or web projects on CD. No slides will be accepted.
Visual Communication Portfolio Review
Application
You must apply for the portfolio review from pre-art major to Graphic Design by the posted deadline, in the Art Student Services office FA4-106, usually the second and third week of each semester. No portfolio review is required for you to make this degree objective change, however you still have to pass the portfolio review to gain entrance to the program, which has been impacted (overenrolled) for decades. You must check your file to see that all transcripts from each college attended are included. You must have a minimum 3.0 or “B” average in at least 15 units of Art & Design, or you will not qualify for the review.
Foundation
Your portfolio should be based mainly on projects from pre-major courses and related electives. It is very important to make each project count and to execute it to the best of your ability in each class. It is also important to take each course in the proper sequence based on prerequisites. If you do not have the proper background, you will do poorly, waste your time and use up someone else’s place in the class. Pre-major classes are: ART 223, Lettering and Typography; ART 318, Typography Design; ART 322A, Introduction to Visual Communication; ART 331, VCD Concept Development, ART 326 Computer Graphics, ART 386A, Web Design and ART 386B, Motion Graphics. These may be supplemented by other courses such as: Rendering, Illustration, Photography, Printmaking, etc.
Size and Format
No larger than approximately 22" x 28". Your name, address, and phone number should appear on the outside of the portfolio as well as on the back of each individual piece contained in the portfolio.
Number of Pieces
10 to 12 pieces suggested, an absolute maximum of 15. (Ad campaigns and corporate identities count as one piece). If you have several of each, the maximum total still should be 15.
Contents
A good cross section of your best work. Do not use mediocre pieces for “filler.” When in doubt, leave it out. Do not include printed work just because it is printed. If it is not as good as your student work, forget it. If someone else did part of any piece, art direction, layout, illustration, or photography, credit them with a note on the back of the piece. The worst thing you can do is try to pass off other people’s work as your own (including scans and clip art not significantly altered.
Include variety: posters, ads, typography, logos, stationery, multiple page pieces, annual reports, catalogues, paper sample books, folders, etc. Include multi page projects in either flat form; a cover with spreads, or bound with pages that turn... illustration (if you draw well), packaging (photograph OK with good lighting and crisp focus), and one or more of your own photographs, enhanced in Photoshop and printed as dye-sub or other hi-resolution output.
Make sure your solutions address the problem. Your corporate identity should reflect the nature of the company, product, or service. A bank logo should not look like a surf wear company. CD covers for rock groups should not look like classical or easy listening. Promotional paper brochures should represent the character and specifications of the paper stock promoted. Software packaging should reflect both the nature and design potential of the product.
Photography is very important to Visual Communication. It is more than just finding a building and shooting someone else’s design. It should show your ability to design with the camera, to find uniqueness in your environment, using patterns of light and shadow, color, focus and intensity to tell a story through the photographic imagery you find or create.
Here are some photo examples from previous portfolios:
- A green field of slender grass curving over a water faucet with a rich glossy coat of brilliant ultramarine blue paint, making it appear to be a man-made flower growing in a natural world.
- A black & white portrait of two elderly African American men in dark suits and hats, one with pinstripes and a watch chain on his vest, the other with wire rim glasses, deep in conversation.
- An antique electric fan photographed and uniquely lighted in a variety of colors becomes an object of art and mystery in the way it is transformed.
- Several people are posed for the camera, but not for a portrait. Covered with stretch fabric in bright, almost primary colors, they assume a variety of contortions to form abstract compositions with hints of human features.
Presentation
The object is to make your work exciting and easy to look at. Work should be carefully mounted or matted without flaps on black or neutral gray boards of a uniform size. Sloppy presentation gives the impression that you don’t care. Smaller work can be grouped on single full size boards or half size boards that still maintain the format. A sturdy case should be used, but excessive weight is not an asset. The faculty frowns on herniated disks, and we’re not talking about CD’s here!
Your portfolio should begin and end with strong pieces and have a flow. Mix full color, two color and black & white in between. Don’t group by color or category. Size of pieces may be a consideration in establishing a rhythm for viewing. Ask yourself if the same color and or typeface appears in a lot of pieces. If so, how much versatility are you really showing? Again, avoid using weak pieces for filler. If you want to try something new and different, make sure your basic portfolio is complete first. Do not wait until the last minute to get everything printed at the service bureau.
Last, but not least, do not wait until the last possible second to turn your portfolio in. A speeding ticket, or worse, and accident, will only impede your progress, so plan ahead and do not take risks.
Good luck!
—Visual Communication (Graphic Design) Faculty