Facilities & Resources
Visual Communication Design Facilities
The extensive and recently renovated Visual Communication Design department facilities include:
- Graduate studios with office or studio workstations
- Networked computer software template
- Large screen monitors
- Resource room (design journals, media, and publications)
- Fully equipped letterpress and type shop
- SAIC Service Bureau (binding, papers, and large format printing)
Facility Spotlight: Letterpress Studio
Letterpress provides a vehicle for students a to simultaneously understand the history of typography and printed matter through movable type and hand-operated printing presses while fostering departures for contemporary design practice through bookworks, page layout, and poster design.
Our fully equipped letterpress shop invites students to take beginning and advanced-level classes in a studio with 300+ typefaces, five Vandercook cylinder proof presses, two C&P presses, and a Sigwalt.
Services & Resources
The department has an active American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) student chapter. Led by a faculty member, the chapter holds regular meetings and events, hosts the department’s noon hour lectures, conducts tours of Chicago studios, and oversees a biannual portfolio preparation seminar for all students preparing their work for submission to the department portfolio review.
CAPX advisors prepare students to develop unique career paths that are creatively satisfying, challenging, and rewarding. They can help you identify your strengths, skills, and values, and can assist you in exploring career options, fellowships, and grant opportunities; connecting with alumni and professional networks; developing professional portfolios and establishing an online presence; and applying for internships, jobs, and other professional opportunities.
Service Bureau is a professional digital-output lab that serves the SAIC community. It offers wide format printing, latex printing, laser printing with several binding options, risograph printing, kiss cut stickers, and vinyl cutting.
Print Services at SAIC offers a variety of services on campus, including self-service laser copiers and wide-format printers as well as support of departmental copiers and HP printers
Freelance, Internships, & Job Placement
Chicago's vibrant design community offers the opportunity for professional practice in every configuration of studio, media, and project type. Museums, nonprofit organizations, galleries, arts and theater organizations, recognized professional design studios, a thriving business community, and a multicultural patchwork of small economies all feed creative production here.
Job opportunities are promoted within our department, and design internships are coordinated through the Career and Professional Experience (CAPX) office. Students are prepared for professional placement through VCD 3932 Professional Practice, a course that addresses portfolio development, résumé writing, interviewing strategies, and job seeking.
Justyna Palka Memorial Scholarship
Every year, the Justyna Palka Memorial Scholarship is awarded to one undergraduate Visual Communication Design student. The student is nominated by faculty members and receives both partially funded tuition and the opportunity to work at international advertising company Ogilvy as a summer intern.