At Pratt, we see communications design as a close alignment of thinking and making. Our curriculum pairs critical, cultural observation with emerging technologies and tools to help you form your own design process.
Our multifaceted and interdisciplinary Communications Design courses happen within a studio culture that invites exchange of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes. You’ll explore meaningful visual forms through research, historical and contemporary contexts, experimentation, audience, technology, and play. The Illustration emphasis includes studio courses in advanced storytelling, socio-political commentary, and authorship. Electives include graphic novels, animation and 3D modeling, independent publishing, production design and character design.
The design studio is at the core of your educational experience at Pratt. It is a creative space and a community in microcosm, from which we connect to the larger community. We believe education takes place in the studio and the classroom and that the work in the studio benefits the student’s growth through an exchange of ideas, skills, and aspirations. Working with your peers in the studio deepens knowledge of the opportunities inherent in form-making and design exploration.
Maker Spaces and Labs
Sustainability and material exploration drive our passion for making. We are hands-on and immersive; using our many production labs, any communication design student can discover, iterate and refine their investigations across different media. Learn more
Thesis
By the end of your senior year, you’ll complete a thesis that reflects and shapes your future practice. Your thesis is presented at the annual design show, a public event attended by industry leaders and potential employers. Pratt Shows 2023.
Study Abroad
Immersing yourself in another culture is an incredible experience that can extend the boundaries of creativity. Study abroad programs are an integral part of the college experience, and Pratt has deep connections with university partners around the world. See where you can go.
Learning Resources
We develop disciplinary fluency in our program of study and we celebrate the interdisciplinary nature of design critical to address the plurality and complexity of the environments in which we operate. Learn about resources.
Our Faculty
Pratt’s distinguished faculty of outstanding creative professionals and scholars share a common desire to fully develop each student’s individual potential and creativity. The faculty come from diverse educational and professional backgrounds representing the breadth of Fashion Design’s complexity. This multiplicity of views and experiences provide for a tailored graduate education that is as unique as each of the students. See all Communications Design faculty and administrators.
Communication designers are leading thriving careers, addressing critical challenges, and creating innovative work that reimagines our world, at a diverse selection of companies and institutions. They also go on to become entrepreneurs and principals leading their own studios and businesses.
Thinking seriously about Pratt? Learn more about admissions requirements, plan your visit, talk to a counselor, and start your application. Take the next step.
Building your portfolio can be daunting. We’ll answer your questions and help you feel confident about the portfolio you submit with your application. Start building your portfolio, now.
Find yourself at home at Pratt: our residence halls, student organizations, athletics, exhibitions, events, the amazing City of New York and our Brooklyn neighbors. Check us out.
UG COMD Lecture Series: Talia Cotton
Date: Nov. 11, 2025
Time: 6:00 pm
Location: Pratt Building ARC E02
Join Talia Cotton as she explores how new technologies can elevate the work of designers, illustrators, and creatives through a practical lens. Talia will share insights on turning a passion into a unique career, from setting up her studio to managing the everyday realities of professional creative coding. She’ll provide concrete advice on the software, skills, and strategies that have helped her succeed, as well as practical tips on structuring large projects, building a portfolio that blends creativity and technology, and navigating the demands of a tech-driven practice. Whether you’re a creative coder or simply curious about shaping a career in an emerging field, Talia’s insights will help you follow your passion and carve out a new path—with real-world considerations in mind.
Talia Cotton is an American designer, coder, and creative entrepreneur. She is the Founder & Creative Director of Cotton, an award-winning creative agency and the first to integrate design and coding as a single creative process. She formerly led data-driven & algorithmic design at Pentagram with Michael Bierut and Giorgia Lupi. Recognized by Fast Company, The New York Times, D&AD, TDC, and more, she was recently named a “Responsible Designer to Watch” and was awarded the Young Guns Award under 30. Talia frequently speaks internationally and leads workshops to inspire and educate designers and businesses on the impact of coding as a limitless creative medium.
Do you know about DIS Copenhagen Summer Sessions? NOW OPEN TO COMMUNICATION DESIGN STUDENTS....DIS Summer Sessions are available to most Pratt Students as a way to accrue credits over the Summer.
(Advisor approval may be required.)
This is an incredible opportunity to study in Copenhagen, the UNESCO World Capital of Architecture 2023. Copenhagen, Denmark has a long history of design excellence to explore and the DIS school is located in the heart of this culturally rich city.
To find out more about DIS, attend the upcoming information session on
November 11 @ 5:30-6:30 Steuben Hall, Room 417.
There will be an opening reception immediately following, featuring work of Summer 2024 students, in the Second Floor Gallery. The show runs November 11- 22
Contact: Professor Robert Nassar rnassar@pratt.edu for application information.
Transform PS 310 with your creative brilliance!
Submit your ideas by November 10th.
Selected Pratt ComD students will each
receive a $500 award.
Submit your ideas with this form:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf4e0cs1c4oc42kbPtFrNIIuz6qccQozvtFDxuMcIQpIMOOLA/viewform
Wednesday night, as part of Pratt Earth Action Week, UG ComD and the Pratt Sustainability Minor will hold a free screening of “Beyond Zero” the story of a global public company embarks on a high-stakes quest to eliminate all negative environmental impacts by 2020. Beyond Zero offers an inspirational roadmap for how business can reverse climate change and how designers can play an active role.
ARC*E-02 TEC Lecture Hall
November 6, 2024
7:00pm – 9:00pm
Register Here!
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/fim-screening-beyond-zero-tickets-1065818986279?
Hello ComD-ers. Go out there and vote and wear your I voted sticker with pride today. You have agency to design your government for the next four years!
COMD Halloween at Pratt
WED OCT 30
Pratt Studios 310
11AM-5PM...Candy Buffet
12-3PM...Fortune Telling
School of Design Gallery
9-10:30PM...Frankenweenie Film
(wear pajamas, bring blankets and pillows)
THUR OCT 31
Student Union
5-7PM...Halloween Costume Contest
sign up for the contest here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10ILTfmA84-3Ke4Lxc0RbXok0nYRuZfXBrQaUvU0TpnE/viewform?edit_requested=true
illustration by Prof. Rudy Gutierrez
#rudy_gutierrez_art
What is Chairapy? Chat with your Chair, Meta Newhouse, every Wednesday from Oct. 9 – Dec. 18. In Pratt Studios Room 310, from 2–3pm.
No appointment necessary. Feel free to bring work, ideas, and/or questions about everything from your classes, career goals, work/life balance, etc.
The Communications Design curriculum embraces the multifaceted and interdisciplinary nature of communication design practice. Our courses and projects promote the rich exchange embodied in a studio culture that values the development of individual perspectives, critique, visual literacy, media fluency, experiential learning, and innovative formal outcomes.
Second-year coursework introduces fundamental theories, methodologies, and skills central to communication design. Courses prompt students to define and explore a design process that engages research, historical and contemporary contexts, experimentation, audience, technology, and play in the construction of meaningful visual forms.
Upper-level studio courses prompt students to engage in increasingly complex projects that introduce time-based media, visual systems, branding, and installations. Beginning in the third year, students develop an individual focus or set of interests inside the larger discipline through courses in their chosen area of emphasis: graphic design or illustration. Electives both inside the department and throughout the Institute expand the core curriculum, allowing students to explore ways of thinking and making throughout the visual arts.
Emphasis in Illustration
Students who select the Illustration Emphasis take a series of upper-level studio courses that explore topics particularly relevant to image-based communication, such as advanced storytelling, socio-political commentary, and authorship. Upper-level courses related to the illustration emphasis encourage experimentation with multiple technologies, platforms, and techniques. Electives provide opportunities to explore a wide spectrum of contemporary illustration practice, including graphic novels, animation and 3D modeling, independent publishing, production design and character design
In the Communications Design BFA program students will undertake a course of study where they will work towards:
Developing a professional, responsive and interdisciplinary perspective on the role of design and the designer and their relationship to economic, social, ecological, historical and political systems
Engaging with form, systems, experiences and interactions as intersecting modes of knowing, thinking, making and being, and the implications on people, communities and environments across scale
Situating making practices, research and theory in response to the legacies of design history and to global, local and personal narratives
Demonstrating fluency in challenging the use of tools, technologies and materials across media in consideration to the value systems they embody
Practicing exploration and experimentation of the interplay between thinking and making towards developing a diverse body of work
