Real world training set within a liberal arts-based curriculum is the mission of the Department of Art & Design at Sacred Heart University. Through its extensive offerings in Graphic Design Major, carried out by means of extremely active and engaged learning programs, the department supports the overall mission of the University. Along with the most up-to-date digital design facilities and a commitment to art and design as it exists today and in the near future, the department develops designers and artists who are critical thinkers and contributing members of society, their communities, and their professions, who are always able to respond to an ever-changing world. Most recently, the department launched a minor in Fashion Design and built a new state-of-the art fashion studio.

The Department of Art & Design is committed to combining education for life with preparation for professional excellence. The department is ideally situated within the vast design, art, and cultural resources of the metropolitan New York City area, with access to the country's richest base of design, marketing, art, and advertising firms within the world-class digital design community of Fairfield County, Connecticut. Combined with a professionally active faculty, an extensive professional internship program, and exemplary support from the University, the Department of Graphic Design & Visual Arts offers an unmatched opportunity to prepare students for the transition from the classroom to the visual arts workplace.

The Nationally Recognized Laptop Program
Through a unique laptop purchase program, students are able to purchase a professional designer's laptop and have wireless access anywhere on campus. With the continued enthusiastic support of the College and the University, the Department of Art & Design is able to fully support studies in aesthetics and professional practices with a complete set of professional digital design tools. In fact, Intel Corporation has recognized Sacred Heart University as the eleventh best wireless computer campus in the nation. All Graphic Design courses are supported by a large Macintosh lab facility with the latest hardware and software. Currently every computer in the Mac Lab is outfitted with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign at the CS2 level, Acrobat Pro, QuarkXpress 6.5, and the complete Macromedia Studio MX 2004 containing Flash, Dreamweaver, Freehand, and Fireworks. Used in conjunction with our laptop program and server licenses for the most popular design software, the digital experience at Sacred Heart University has created a model for Art & Design programs.

Senior Portfolio Night
Art & Design at Sacred Heart University culminates in Graphic Design and Illustration Portfolio classes. These classes reach their climax with the annual Senior Portfolio Night, at which three to four hundred guests attend a formal presentation by graduating seniors. Invited guests include the leading design, advertising, and marketing companies in Fairfield County, home to some of the most prestigious companies of this type in the nation.

Mission
At the core of the program is the study of the fundamentals and principles of Art & Design combined with an introduction to some of the finer accomplishments of humankind, giving students a sense of duty in terms of serving the idea and helping them to realize that their work in Art & Design can realistically effect change in the world. In doing so, the Sacred Heart University Art & Design program serves the University’s mission by challenging its students to think visually, observe critically, develop analytical skills and problem-solving abilities, evaluate with a sense of proportion, and communicate observations in an intelligible and articulate fashion. Students learn to develop an aesthetic for their world and to sharpen their abilities to imagine, create, and appreciate. The Art & Design program is designed to create digital communication skills within the students and to engage them in verbal dialogue and, thus, establish a foundation for ongoing experience, learning and enrichment in their lives ahead. As a means to accomplishing these goals the department offers students the opportunity to study graphic design employing start-of-the-art digital design applications and hardware. Through the portable laptop program, the Macintosh labs, and our active internship program working with nationally recognized companies in design and marketing, we offer students the opportunity to study contemporary digital design in a rich, liberal arts environment.

The Art & Design program offers concentrated studies in digital graphic design. Included are extensive course offerings in all levels of digital visual communication design and a strong program in traditional fine arts. Students study typography, layout, computer graphics, illustration, multimedia, motion, and web design. As a common foundation for all Art & Design students, the department offers many levels of drawing, painting, figure drawing, and methods and materials. Students also have the opportunity to study illustration, including editorial and storyboard art, as well as fantasy and graphic novels. By means of this deep and rich experience students learn to select the best method for creating visual solutions to specific problems as well as explore the wide variety of potential careers in digital design. In addition, the Art & Design program has an extensive internship program. Students qualifying for the internship program have the opportunity to work for some of the nation’s best design, marketing, and communications companies.