There are many art and design careers available to those who like to express themselves creatively. Making a successful career out of your artistic passion starts with exploration and education. Attending art school or design school helps you hone your artistic skills and fine tune your creative thinking.
When you enter art school, most programs start you with a foundation curriculum that develops creative thinking, artistic technique and lets you explore a variety of art majors to help you make your decision about which art degree you are most excited about. While studying as a college art major you may also be required to take other classes such as English, math, humanities and physical education. Many art schools offer certificate, diploma, or degree options such as Associate, Bachelor and Master degrees.
Popular art school degrees:
Animation & Game Degree – Are you a “gamer?” If you love playing video games, or animation movies are on the top of your all-time-favorites movie list, then a career as an animator or game designer will be a great choice. As an animation design or game design major, you will start your learning in foundational art class such as drawing, color theory, design, math and computer software applications. You will be spending a lot of time learning sophisticated computer graphics tools ranging from operating systems, compositing and 3-D modeling. You will also learn about audio, lighting, motion, visual effects, and many aspects of 3-D design. Find animation degrees and game design degrees >>
Fashion Design Degree – Do people call you a “clothes horse” or a “fashionista?” More importantly do you enjoy sewing and constructing clothing? Fashion is an exciting and competitive industry where you can work in fashion design, fashion illustration, costume design and textile design. As a fashion design major you go beyond design clothes, shoes, hats and accessories for men, women and children, you also get an understanding of fashion within the context of societies and cultures. Fashion design majors do a lot of drawing on paper and using computer software programs. Like other art majors you will refine your creative, critical and technical skills. You will likely learn clothing pattern drafting, history of fashion, textiles, clothing construction, draping, fashion history and fashion merchandising. Find fashion design degrees >>
Graphic Design Degree – Graphic designers create advertisements, packaging, book covers, signage, websites, and design for many other media and communications vehicles. Graphic design majors start their college education like many of the art majors with foundational art classes such as drawing, composition, painting, photography and color theory. Graphic design majors also learn to develop these important design skills: creativity, problem solving, art direction, conceptual thinking and project management. In addition to design methodologies and theories, design majors learn the popular design software programs from companies such as Adobe and Macromedia for PC and Macintosh computers, By the end of your final semester, graphic design majors will have prepare a portfolio of their work, traditional and digital work samples, to show prospective employers. Find graphic design degrees >>
Interior Design Degree – When you look around you, many of the interior spaces have been touched by interior design. Interior designers have a hand in creating living spaces that are inviting, evoke emotion, and have practical use. Offices, homes, retails stores, hotels, restaurants, airline terminals, hospitals and other spaces can be made beautiful and practical by an interior designer. As with many other art and design majors, interior design majors study foundational art classes such as drawing, art history, color, and more. Once these classes are completed, interior design majors begin to specialize in their area of study with classes that involve: lighting, space planning, 3-D design, furnishings, computer design, rendering, interior environments, etc. Find interior design degrees >>
Photography Degree – Do you find yourself looking at a beautiful landscape and thinking, “That would make a great photo.” Do you get excited every time you see a new camera being advertised? Then photography may be the right career for you. Photography majors take many of the same foundation art classes as other art majors and then specialize in basic and advanced classes such as camera operation (traditional SLR and digital), photographic film types, photographic processes, darkroom techniques, black and white photography, color photography, digital imaging, computer imaging, photographic manipulation, lighting, and history of art and photography. Find photography degrees >>
Web Design Degree – Web design and Interactive design majors learn how to conceptualize, created and produces web sites, presentations and other interactive or multimedia communications. Web/Interactive design majors study design and learn many computer software applications and languages. This major is a special combination of creativity and technology. Some courses that web/interactive design majors enable them to learn: layout design, web layout, cascading style sheets, HTML, JavaScript, and computer software programs (e.g., Macromedia Dreamweaver, Adobe Photoshop, etc.). Find web design degrees >>
Other art and design degrees include: Advertising, Architecture, Fine Arts, Illustration, and Visual Arts.
