Explore the Graphic Design residency

Instead, students attend a 9-day in-person residency period every semester and then continue their studies remotely in the home community during the remaining six months of the semester.

VCFA’s academic calendar is divided into two six-month semesters per year: a summer and winter semester.

Each semester begins with a 9-day residency packed with lectures, critiques, workshops, exhibitions, and discussions. Students leave the very first residency with new ideas and a vibrant network of fellow designers, mentors, and collaborators.

During residencies, students get to know faculty and participate in the faculty advisor selection process. Once they have been matched with an advisor, students develop unique semester study plans that will broaden and deepen their design practice, pushing them to think critically about the social, ethical, historical, formal, and philosophical implications of graphic design.

In addition to their design community, students are on campus with our five other MFA programs during residency: Film, Music Composition, Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, and Visual Art. Designers will have the opportunity during residency for interdisciplinary study, work, and networking.

The semester continues with 6 months of independent work in each student’s home community, where they remain in dialogue with their faculty advisor. At the end of the semester, students return to residency again to present their work in an exhibition and engage in critiques and academic exploration to prepare for their next semester. The cycle continues each semester with a week-long in-person residency followed by six months of independent study.

The MFA in Graphic Design Program at VCFA is unique in its student-centered pedagogy, its low-residency structure, and its expansive approach to the discipline of Graphic Design. The faculty and staff comprise one of the strongest assets of the program.

• As individuals, they are accomplished designers, artists, thinkers, historians, critics, theorists, and teachers.
• They are also remarkable people who are generous and caring, and who are not afraid to ask tough questions of the students and of each other.
• The low-residency format allows for faculty and staff to join from across the country and around the world.
• As a group, the faculty and staff have extraordinary diversity regarding geography, expertise, experience, education, nationality, race and ethnicity, as well as wide-ranging design philosophies and teaching styles.
• The commonality is a commitment to design and education, to the student experience, and to the remarkable teaching and learning environment we have created as a group at VCFA.

After each residency, students return to their homes and stay hard at work, devoting at least 25 hours a week to their studies. They remain in close consultation with their faculty advisor through email, phone, or video conference. Through this structure, students can develop their professional practices within their communities and integrate new research methods into their work.

Students deepen their artistic vision, enhance their understanding of the evolving discipline of design, and hone their craft. This merging of creative practice with critical inquiry is a key component of the program.

Our 4:1 student-faculty ratio encourages close relationships between students and faculty advisors. Students and faculty learn and create together, sharing experiences, exchanging strategies, and challenging conventions. With guidance from faculty, visiting designers, and peers, students ask the hard questions: How can design change the world? How does the process of designing change you?