Selected from an international pool of applicants, students
in MICA’s Graphic Design MFA program include experienced
designers who are seeking to reinvigorate their work as well
as professionals and advanced students from related disciplines,
such as digital media, photography, journalism,and the fine
arts, GD MFA students pursue advanced studio work as well as
courses in the history and theory of art, design, and culture.
Students work in print, animation, web design, product develop-
ment, environmental design,and other media.
MICA’S GD MFA program is unique for its down–to–earth,
hands–on, practical approach to advanced design study. The
program provides designers with an opprtunity to rethink the
direction of their careers by learning new technologies and by
working as the active authors/initiators of original creative
projects. Our program is not a retreat from the “real world.â€
Instead, this unique graduate program provides a strategic
location from which to develop intellectual and technological
tools for engaging the larger society in which design functions.
Design is an art of situations, a visual practice that responds
to living cultural conditions.
GD MFA students work to study, engage, and invigorate that
world. Critical readings and theoretical discussions infuse our
practical work with vital, concrete understanding of the issues
driving contemporary design and culture. The centerpiece of
this 60–credit, two year program is the GD MFA Studio, a course
that encourages students to develop original ideas and test them
agaiinst real–world constraints. Ongoing GD MFA Studio projects
include BUY*PRODUCT, in which students and faculty are collabo-
rating to produce a book called D.I.Y. Graphic Design, which is
being published by Princeton Architectural Press and will be
distributed internationally. In the thesis project that culminates
the program,students identify their own subject mwtter and con-
text for creating and testing original design work. Thesis pro-
jects have included retail environments, product development,
and Web sites and animations for museums. The GD MFA pro-
gram is located in MICA’s Brown Center, a new building that
houses studio programs in design,digital art, video, interactive
media, and digital photography, as well as a 500–seat auditorium.
Designed by architect Charles Brickbauer, the Brown Center is a
stunning new landmark in Baltimore’s downtown landscape, and a
tribute to the future to the future of art and design.