Graphic Design

Can a poster, a cereal box or a brand logo change what someone decides to buy? Graphic Design at Cambrian College answers that over six semesters: it is a three-year Ontario College Advanced Diploma from the School of Creative Industries, taught on the Barrydowne campus in Sudbury in a flex, full-time format.

Year one grounds you in Fundamentals of Drawing, Design Foundations I and II, Digital Design I and II, Digital Imaging I, Typography I, Copywriting I and Digital Advertising. Year two widens your range with Production Design, Illustration I and II, Accessible Design, Advanced Photography, Studio Photography, Typography II, Package Design, Editorial Design, Visual Identity I, Website Design and Website Development. In year three you take Motion Graphics I and II, Visual Identity II, Content Management Systems, Advanced Website Applications and Advanced Design Applications, and complete a Creative Thesis, Portfolio Preparation and Decolonizing the Creative Arts.

Cambrian’s design studios include a Risograph press, process printers and a professional photography studio, and you work in Adobe Creative Cloud, supplied by the college, on your own laptop with a DSLR or mirrorless camera kit. A five-week industry placement in semester five puts you on live briefs, and past students have redesigned brand material for Cambrian’s own marketing department. You receive automatic RGD Ontario student membership, travel annually to the RGD Design Thinkers conference in Toronto and can seek Provisional RGD status on graduation.

Graduates of this Graphic Design diploma find work as junior graphic designer, production artist, packaging designer, web designer, motion graphics designer and in-house brand designer, at design firms, web studios, agencies, publishers and government departments. It suits visual thinkers who enjoy type and image, can take critique on a layout and want a portfolio built over three full years.