Course description
Master of Arts in Environmental Graphics
Environmental Graphics is the comprehensive discipline of graphics, typography, and way finding within the built environment. It is a design endeavor involving cognitive mapping and spatial relationships. Designers engaged in this discipline are required to have the ability to work on a human, vehicular, interactive and print media scale. The design discipline requires a unique education to prepare designers to sensitively respond to the built environment.
The Environmental Graphics program is a 31-credit-hour, post-baccalaureate Master of Arts degree program within the College of Architecture and Design. This program is designed to develop advanced knowledge and experience in an expanding design discipline. Graduates of the Master of Arts in Environmental Graphics will:
* Acquire and articulate (through written, visual and oral communication skills) knowledge and participate in the process of creating environmental graphics.
* Employ problem solving and design skills to create environmental graphics that are sensitive to human, urban and environmental scale.
* Lead in the design and implementation of environmental graphics through thoughtful and rigorous pursuit of a design discipline that operates in a global market.
Employment Prospects for Graduates
The Master of Arts in Environmental Graphics provides a unique employment opportunity in the emerging field of environmental graphics. Most practitioners in the field arrived at their potions by way of an architecture or graphic design education. Graduates of the Master in Arts in Environmental Graphics program will be trained specifically to have understanding and expertise critical to lead the environmental graphics field.
* Architecture Firms: Most architecture firms are involved by way of signage and wayfinding in some level of engagement in environmental graphics. To this end, many large firms create in-house services to provide environmental graphics as an integrated discipline. This allows for the architecture and the graphics to appropriately respond to the project’s context. The Master of Arts in Environmental Graphics graduates will have employment opportunities within architecture firms providing this service.
* Wayfinding Design Firms: Within the complex systems designed for large buildings, cities, and transportation hubs, design professionals are needed to design and coordinate the wayfinding system and graphics. In Michigan and nationally, consultants work in this specialized subset of environmental graphics. With specific curricular training in wayfinding, graphics and architecture, graduating students will be uniquely qualified to find employment in a wayfinding design firm.
* Graphic Design Firms: Graphic design firms are now responding to the changing market by operating on many levels of project scale. Designers are needed to provide design expertise that goes beyond print media to a human and urban scale. Graduates will find many employment opportunities within graphic design firms who seek candidates knowledgeable in both graphics and architecture.
* Signage Fabrication: Technological advances have created a specialized carrier path for environmental graphic designers for the fabrication of signage. The Master of Arts in Environmental Graphics will support curriculum that address emerging technologies in fabrication, material studies, waste minimization and large-scale digital interface technology. Graduates will become leaders in their field with specialized knowledge that is quickly becoming the standard expectation.
