Lauren Thorson
Associate professor and chair
The Department of Graphic Design champions agency through the competencies of collaboration, research, making and cultural literacy. The department believes in responding to the reality of our time and that design is activated by content, condition and impact. Further, that design exists in a continuum: The study of the historical past as it informs the now strengthens design’s ability to strategically speculate on future forms, languages and systems.
The department provides an education that values the inclusion of diverse backgrounds, skill sets and experiences. Students develop acuities to communicate effectively through visual and verbal representation, and are prepared — as individuals and collaborators — to be practitioners not limited by the confines of current professional practices.