Graphic Arts

View the admission requirements and application form for the Graphic Arts Program

Submission deadline for Fall 2024: Sunday March 17th, 2024 at 5pm (Eastern Time)

Our students are dedicated to the critical and creative design process, while they are challenged to investigate new ways of solving complex, multi-layered visual problems.

Based out of the USF campus in St. Petersburg, our design courses center on the studio model of education where students work together, examine outcomes, listen to informal lectures, and engage in passionate discussions. Ours is an active, participatory learning and making environment. The atmosphere is creative and relaxed while the projects are complex and demanding. Students supplement their course work with additional projects from both community and university organizations.

The faculty of practicing professionals and experienced educators is committed to developing, in their students, a personal visual vocabulary based on the formal principles of design, conceptual and critical thinking skills, typographic excellence and the application of advanced digital technologies.

Degrees / Ways to Study

• Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Arts
  Concentration in Graphic Design
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Graphic Arts
  Concentration in Illustration

View the Graphic Arts Student Work Gallery

At USF, Graphic Arts students have the option of a concentration in illustration. The concentration was created for students that want to pursue a career in graphic design or a related field and are passionate about creating art via traditional fine arts such as drawing, painting, etc. The concentration is balanced in both graphic design courses and illustration courses. Students in the illustration concentration are encouraged to use more illustrative solutions in their graphic arts courses. In the advanced illustration courses, students explore various aspects of illustration such as narrative, editorial, advertising, storyboards and graphic novels, and concept art/design. This emphasis allows a student to pursue many different careers upon graduation in both graphic design and illustration.

Students graduate from the program with the skills, passion and imagination to become accomplished designers who are ready to challenge perceptions, redefine problems and embrace a diverse cultural audience. Our students prepare for employment in many creative venues including, but not limited to, design studios, corporate design departments, agencies, production areas and new media design offices. With our small class size, one-on-one instruction, professional academic advisors and award-winning design faculty, the Graphic Arts Program at USF St. Petersburg provides its students with the best of all worlds; the intimate and personalized instruction of a private design school with the academic rigor of a premier research intensive university.

The Graphic Arts Program is located on the beautiful waterfront USF campus adjacent to downtown St. Petersburg, Florida. The city hosts a thriving arts community including arts organizations, studios, galleries and museums. The program attracts a significant number of students locally, nationally and internationally.

For more information about our program, browse our web site. For specific questions please email Heather Van Allen at hvanallen@usf.edu.

What Do Graphic Designers Do?

Graphic designers make communication visible. They give visual form to information by combining words and images into important and persuasive messages.

The Graphic Arts Program complements the mission of the university environment by preparing students for future success through interdisciplinary course study, small class size, and the exploration of new technologies and information environments. Students recognize the potential of their creative processes by creating and evaluating messages that both reflect and respond to the diversity of our global culture. This creative development allows for problem solving strategies that recognize communication, in all of its forms, as vital to our social responsibility and structure. The program is committed to providing an open and challenging environment where students are encouraged to find their voice and to freely explore (and possibly alter) their personal relationship to design, culture, technologies and society.

Area Faculty

John Stanko, Associate Professor of Graphic Design
Phone: (727) 873-4788 | Email: stankoj@usf.edu

Jennifer Yucus,
Associate Professor of Graphic Design
MFA, Savannah College of Art & Design
Office: HBR 119 | Phone: (727) 873-4650 | Email: jyucus@usf.edu

Erika Greenberg-Schneider, Associate Professor of Graphic Design
Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres
Office: HBR 114 | Phone: (727) 873-4471 | Email: egreenbe@usf.edu 

Elizabeth Herrmann, Associate Professor of Graphic Design
Office: HBR 117 | Email: eherrman@usf.edu

David Watts, Professor of Instruction of Graphic Design, Graphic Arts Program Coordinator, Assistant Director of School of Art and Art History
Office: HBR 127 | Email: dwatts2@usf.edu 

Maggie Winter, Assistant Professor of Data Visualization
Office: HBR 208 | Email: winterm2@usf.edu

Contact Information

Harbor Hall
USF, St. Petersburg campus
1000 3rd St S, St. Petersburg, FL 33701