COMMUNICATION DESIGN |

a logo indicating a STEM-designated programa badge indicating the CCS GD USA top design school badge

Communication designers are interdisciplinary by nature. We make things that you see, read, touch, and experience every day. Our visual messages can live on a static page, a dynamic screen, or a user interface.

Still from a motion design project. Cartoon red hand on a dark blue and purple background touching a bright purple bumpy shape.

Noah Watson

various art materials laid out on a desk

Alexandra Porter

Our innovative curriculum in CD encourages students to create imaginative work that engages users in new and unexpected ways in print, motion, and user experience design. Communication Design students learn to, print, code, type, cut/paste, photograph, connect, play, wire, move, gesture, draw, touch, think, paint, video, capture, record, document, make, write, and build, dynamic design solutions. At the end of their four-year experience, they discover that their creative potential is limitless.

Our program is STEM-designated. New international students completing this program can apply for the STEM-OPT (optional practical training) extension.

Our Communication Design curriculum is graphic design made dynamic. Our projects start with research that helps students make informed choices with the end-user in mind. We dig deep to find the answers and sometimes we end up with better questions.

idea board with lots of images and pictures

Things here can get messy, but in the end, we get it right because we have the ability to make books, packaging, brand identities, magazines, way-finding systems, websites, mobile apps, UxD, movie title sequences and exhibition spaces. Many of our projects connect with collaborative partnerships in the areas of architectural interior spaces, urban planning, mobility and social practice.

black and white moving collage

 From research projects, students move into ideation, where we play with the ideas, messaging and meaning, in order to get the concept just right. Now the fun begins, we visualize our ideas in a variety of ways, iterating in order to try, test, fail, and eventually succeed.

screen in a frame with a hand pointing

CCS/CD students are in high demand here and abroad because they are leaders and they can think, make, & play – which is innovation at its core.

We are different. In the best possible way.

Graduates work for global brands, including Adidas, Adobe, And/Or, Apple, Artifact, Buzzfeed, Carhartt, Converse, Czarnowski, Facebook, Ford Motor Co., General Motors, Good Done Daily, Google, Grand Army, Hobbes, Hook, L/A, Lego, Microsoft, Moosejaw, One Design Studio, Pentagram, Rivian, Schema, Shinola, Sonos, SPAN, Stiletto, UM, @Walsh and 2 x 4. The department has many professional options.

Our CD Alumni are entrepreneurs. After years of honing their professional careers, many go on to opening their own design studios across the country and the globe, including Los Angeles, New York City, UK and right here in Detroit.

2021 Communication Design Placement Rate (Employment and Graduate School)
Number of Graduates = 26
Number Employed = 23
Number Employed in Their Major Field = 23
Number Attending Graduate School = 1
Total Number Placed = 24
Placement Rate = 92.31%

CAREER CHOICES

App Designer
Branding/Identity Designer
Brand Manager
Creative Director
Design Director
Design Strategist
Digital Content Manager
Digital Designer

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Editorial Designer
Environment Designer
Exhibit Designer
Graphic Designer
Interaction Designer
Interactive Art Director
Mobile Media Designer
Motion Graphic Designer
Multimedia Graphic Designer
Social Media Digital Designer
Social Media Director
User Experience Designer
User Interface Designer
Visual Designer
Web Designer
Web/Mobile Media Designer

Featured Alumni

Wideshot of the Ford CCS Campus Menu for Karl's Coffee Shop Company logo, Lafayette American Meg Janott | Senior Designer
'11

Emily Cowdrey

Senior Designer
Steelcase

'04

Chuck Gibson

Senior UX Designer
Google

'12

Meg Jannott

Head of Design
Lafayette American

'00

Kelli Miller

Co-Founder & Creative Director
And/Or

'13

Samantha Peacock

Senior Designer
IDEO

'08

Brett Renfer

Experience Designer
BlueCadet

'11

Will Ruby

Senior Experience Designer
Adobe Design

'09

Megan Schellenbarger

Senior Creative Manager
Lego

Alumni Network

East Coast

BASE
And/Or
Gretel
Trollback
Buck TV
2 x 4
Collin

Midwest

VSA Partners
Thirst
Otherwise
Punchkick
Razorfish
Nokia
Pivot Design
Studio Blue
People’s Liberty

West Coast

Adobe Ex
Microsoft
Artefact
Adidas
Nike
Wieden + Kennedy
Google
eBay
Foc Media
IDEO
Capacity TV
Bemis Balkind
Big Tomorrow

Michigan

Herman Miller
People’s Design
Whirlpool
Digitas
Enlighten
O2
Group Ex
Shinola
Commonwealth
Octane
Organic
Quicken Loans
Mercedes Benz Financial Services
Latch + Associates
George P. Johnson
Czarnowski
DittoDitto
Lunar North
The Works Department
Good Done Daily
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