Design and Visual Arts

Have you filled sketchbooks for years and want to find out what your work could become? Design and Visual Arts is a two-year Ontario College Diploma at Cambrian College in Sudbury, taught over four semesters by practising artists, and it needs no portfolio to get in because building one is the point of the programme.

Semester one introduces Ideas & Imagery, Design Fundamentals, Colour and Design, Fundamentals of Drawing, Fine Art Studio 2D, Art and Design Communication and Graphic Design Studio. Semester two develops Life Drawing, Drawing from your Imagination, Applied Colour, Applied Multimedia, Analytical Drawing, Fine Art Studio 3D, Introduction to Art History and Decolonizing the Creative Arts. The second year shifts to independent practice with Materials and Processes I and II, Visual Art Practices I and II, Multimedia Printing, Advanced Printing, Modern Art History and Art and Design Project I and II, while Business of the Arts and Business Application teach you to price, promote and sell your work.

Portfolio Development I and II in the final two semesters guide you in assembling a body of work ready for clients, galleries or further study. Students have created a mural that brightens a public space in Sudbury, and the programme ends with a public graduate exhibition of your artwork. Adobe Creative Cloud is used across the multimedia and graphic design courses. Graduates can move into Cambrian’s Animation, Game - Design and Simulation, Graphic Design or Media Communications programmes, and articulation agreements offer college and university degree options.

Graduates of Design and Visual Arts work as commissioned and exhibiting artists, muralists, illustrators, printmakers, art programme instructors and gallery or studio assistants. The programme suits creative people who want strong drawing, colour and studio foundations, and those who plan to use the diploma as a portfolio route into a more specialised design or animation programme.