The Tyler School of Art and Architecture’s Graphic & Interactive Design (GAID) Department prepares students for successful careers in design and to become leaders in the field. Students learn to create memorable user experiences, communicate effectively to solve complex problems, and use their visual voice to open minds and address social and cultural issues.
Mentored by a passionate, award-winning faculty, Tyler GAID majors experiment and create original, human-centered and research-driven concepts across all areas of visual design, including branding, typography, packaging, illustration, digital media, virtual reality and experiential design.
Students develop a digital literacy that fuels their ability to apply existing and emerging technologies in their work – learning how to learn the ever-expanding software applications that power the field – and a thorough understanding of the changing nature of design and the integral role that technology plays in it. All students engage with the core software applications (Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop) as well as a wide variety of software for prototyping, animation, motion graphics, typeface design, 3D modeling, coding, website design, augmented reality, game development and collaboration.
Students also find and hone their unique voices and have opportunities to wield their design expertise across Philadelphia—a city that’s a living laboratory for design-driven solutions and host to a booming design community with one of the largest national chapters of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA)—as well as nationally and internationally.
Students and faculty have been featured in numerous national and international design competitions and publications, and have won many awards and honors. Leveraging robust faculty and alumni networks, graduates find employment in studios and agencies around the country as well as abroad in areas that include:
- Design studios
- User-experience (UX) and user-interface (UI) design firms
- Publishing companies
- Streaming platforms and network television
- Music industry and digital services
- Motion and experiential design studios
- Packaging design
- Fortune 500 technology companies
- Advertising agencies
- Illustration entrepreneurs and start-up design businesses
Some of the companies that our students have worked at include Anheuser-Busch; Chronicle Books; Google; Hallmark; MTV; The New York Times; Nickelodeon; Pentagram; the Philadelphia Flyers (NHL); Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Philadelphia Phillies (MLB); Simon and Schuster; Spotify; URBN; and Vanguard.
Resources
- Access to Adobe Creative Cloud and other industry-standard software.
- Support available to experiment with emerging technologies such as augmented reality, virtual reality, blended reality and video game design.
- A dedicated printing and production studio; a large, open space for interdisciplinary collaborative projects; individual work stations for making; and flat files for storage
- Access to the Tyler digital fabrication studio and additional printing facilities
- Access to the specialists, technology and resources of Temple—a leading public research university
Visiting artists and lecturers
Tyler GAID brings leading designers, illustrators and thinkers to enrich the student experience, providing workshops, presentations and one-on-one interactions for students. Over the years Tyler has hosted Louise Fili, Josh Goldblum, Jessica Hische, Kyree Holmes, Brad Johnson, Zach Lieberman, Andrea Pippins, Robynne Raye, Stefan Sagmeister, Paula Scher, David Dylan Thomas, Roberto de Vicq, James Victore and Loveis Wise.
The Hatchery
The most notable graphic designers today all have one thing in common—hustle. In The Hatchery, design students get to taste creative agency and entrepreneurship by bringing their ideas to market and working directly with clients. Semester-long experiences provide opportunities for hands-on problem solving and real-world projects.
In the past, students have created their own brands and sold their own products in addition to collaborating with companies and organizations like Boldfaced Goods, Career Wardrobe, Genuine Fred, Hallmark, Temple Law, Tyler’s Alumni Association and Victory Brewing Company.
