The School of Visual Arts in New York City, or SVA, places a strong emphasis on design. Its undergraduate program offers study in Advertising, Animation, Cartooning, Computer Art, Film and Video, Fine Arts, Graphic Design, Illustration, Interior Design, Photography, and Visual and Critical Studies. Many of its alumni have succeeded as professional designers, and the school boasts of close links between current students and educational and employment opportunities with alumni. The graduate program focuses primarily on arts education and training students to become art educators and art therapists.
Since its founding by artists in 1929, the Academy of Art University in San Francisco has placed an emphasis on a broad spectrum of technical art skills. The university also integrates new and emerging technologies such as computer animation and web design into their curriculum. Undergraduate programs include Advertising, Animation and Visual Effects, Architecture, Art Education, Fashion, Fine Art, Game Design, Graphic Design, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture and Design, Motion Pictures and Television, Multimedia communications, Music for Visual Media, Photography and Web Design and New Media. The graduate program offers advanced studies in the same fields and spreads the course work between studio courses, directed study, academic study and electives.
Based in Los Angeles, the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, or FIDM, offers undergraduate degrees in 20 majors with an emphasis on practical design and merchandising for fashion and product development. Majors include Apparel Industry Management, Beauty Industry Merchandising and Marketing, Business Management, Digital Media, Entertainment Set Design and Decoration, Fashion Design, Fashion Knitwear Design, Film and TV Costume Design, Footwear Design, Graphic Design, Interior Design, Interior Design Specialties, International Manufacturing and Product Development, Jewelry Design, Merchandise Marketing, Merchandise Product Development, Textile Design, Theater Costume Design and Visual Communications. Much of its curriculum leans toward design skills for specific areas of commercial art rather than fine or graphic art.
The Savannah College of Art and Design, or SCAD, lies in the heart of the carefully planned 18th century Georgia city of Savannah. SCAD also has campuses in Hong Kong, Lacoste and Atlanta. The college offers numerous design degrees in its schools of Building Arts, Communication Arts, Design, Fashion, Film, Digital Media and Performing arts, Fine Arts, Foundation Studies and the School of Liberal Arts. SCAD also offers a variety of certificate programs and courses for online study in these design fields.
Since its incorporation in 1877, the Rhode Island School of Design, or RISD, has established itself as one of the finest art schools in the nation with one of the most selective admissions departments. RISD offers undergraduate and graduate programs in Apparel Design, Architecture, Ceramics, Digital Media, English, Film/Animation/Video, Furniture Design, Glass, Graphic Design, History of Art and Visual Culture, History Philosophy and the Social Sciences, Illustration, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Jewelry and Metalsmithing, Landscape Architecture, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Teaching and Learning in Art and Design and Textiles. RISD also shares reciprocity with Brown University, its neighbor in Providence, so students may take classes at both institutions.