COMM404

Senior Project: Visual Communication Design is a writing intensive capstone course that prepares students for post college achievements such as professional design positions and/or graduate school in the Visual Communication Design discipline. Students complete work in the five areas (see below) concurrently, to round out their final dossier:

~ Career Studies: This area focuses on the business of preparing, researching, identifying, and applying for jobs or graduate schools that match a student's goals and aspirations. This includes interview, speech, writing, and
presentation skills as well as refining resumes, business cards, and leave behinds. This also assumes you have already created your own personal identity.

~ Capstone Project: Students in this area define and execute a new design project that demonstrates their highest level of achievement and also reflects their interests. The project can be a new concept, an expansion on another
project currently in your portfolio, or a client-based project.

~ Portfolio: Students are charged with critically assessing their strengths, weakness, and limitations as designers in this class. A portfolio represents you, the entry level designer. It reflects a designers technical and aesthetic skills,
creative process, style, personality, and level of intelligence. a designers portfolio will be a factor in determining your future. Outside reviewers (art directors, faculty, designers, etc.) will be brought to class periodically to provide
students with different perspectives on their work. Final portfolios will exist in three formats: physical book, web-site, and a digital portfolio.

~ Presentation: Students develop confidence in their work and themselves. Principles of speech, body language, appearance, and demeanor are reviewed and practiced. The final outcome of the capstone project and final portfolio will also demonstrate an understanding of the technological and theoretical aspects of the visual communication design field as well as a mastery of, and passion
for, the design discipline. Ultimately, this course will assess your readiness for professional practice in the discipline.