the new
creatives

FIT’s A&DD BFA ranked #6 design program in the world by the One Club Young Ones ADC in 2024. Our industry-inspired curriculum was created by award-winning faculty, industry experts, and thought leaders who are actively shaping the future of the creative economy.

OUR CURRICULUM

A&DD BFA is the only program at FIT that offers specialized courses in concept development, creative strategy, UX/UI design, and product design. Our students specialize in Art Direction, Branding, Copywriting, or Experience Design—with elective credits.

Concept & Strategy

Our students learn how to define the vision and strategy of a brand or campaign and manifest it creatively using all media including digital, print, audio, and video.

Art Direction

Art direction is the process of translating creative concepts into stunning visuals to evoke emotions through the use of typography, color, imagery, and layout.

Experience Design

User experience (UX), user interface (UI), and interaction design (IxD) are the fundamentals of digital products like apps, websites, platforms, and games.

Branding

Our unique branding courses go beyond consumer goods and events to establish a deep understanding of the process and principles of impactful brand strategy, identity, and campaign design.

l

Copywriting

A copywriter creates compelling messages to engage and communicate with consumers, flexing persuasive writing muscle on websites, advertising campaigns, and social media.

Content Design

Content design is not just designing with digital tools. It is the art of creating engaging content through animation, interactivity, and other multi-sensory experiences. 

BIG IDEAS SOLVING BIG PROBLEMS

Our faculty and students strive to produce transformative work that is impactful and fosters positive social change. We believe new creatives are innovators, activists, and visionaries, and we live not only by our commitment to our clients but also by our commitment to our community and society.

NEW CREATIVES ACCEPTED ANNUALLY

AWARD-WINNING PROFESSORS

CUPS OF COFFEE A YEAR

AWARDS IN THE PAST 5 YEARS

Why we are different

We are more than just a program, we are a community of creative people who love having fun and enjoy what we do. You’ll graduate from this program with strong conceptual, visual, and verbal skills, as well as the digital skills that are in high demand today.

AWARD WINNERS

Below is a snapshot of the award-winning projects from our students and faculty. Click on the thumbnails to see the projects or click “See More” and visit our News & Awards page.

CREATIVE EXCELLENCE

We believe in a trans-disciplinary approach to problem solving. Rather than focusing on a narrow skill set, we teach our students to create without the limitation of media, style, or format. 

The six areas of our focus are concept, communication, design, branding, digital typography, and creative technology skills. You will be prepared to work at the best advertising agencies and digital design studios as an art director, copywriter, digital designer, product designer, content designer, app designer, brand designer, interaction or web designer, motion designer, information architect (IA) user experience (UX) designer, user interface (UI) designer, social media content creator, strategic planner, or video editor.

  • Concept & Strategy
  • Communication: Verbal and visual
  • Design: UX, UI, Time-based, and Visual
  • Branding: Multi-sensory Experience
  • Typography: Digital and Traditional
  • Creative Technology: AR/VR, Interaction Design

FROM OUR ALUMNI

Our alumni are working at multi-international digital agencies and companies such as IBM, Wikipedia, and Google as well as top agencies in the world including TBWA, McCann Group, BBDO, Code and Theory, Johannes Leonardo, all of which are ranked top 10 in 2020.

“As far as a skill set, I stood out from the others because A&DD taught me how to weave and explain a conceptual narrative. The animation skills, early understanding of web design, and InDesign chops helped too. On a less ‘tangible’ scale, FIT taught me to push myself past the boundaries I perceived I had. This perseverance was essential in starting a career.”
Margaux Le Pierres, A&DD class of 2013

Design Director, Fictive Kin

“The A&DD program taught me to stay true to my vision, don’t stray too far from the path that speaks to me the most. Also, be cool and friendly with all your colleagues. We are better united than divided.”
Theo Darchiville, Class of 2014

Product Designer, Discovery Inc.

“Think bigger, dig deeper and keep working. A&DD helped me to free my mind to explore design, culture, philosophy, social good and so much more. It gave me the inspiration and guidance I needed, but also provided many blank canvases so I could learn to think for myself. ”
Ester Zar, A&DD class of 2015

Brand Manager, Wikipedia

“Basic design, strategy, copywriting, 3D design, UX, branding, typography, advertising design, motion graphics, post-production, science, art history…and any class I missed. Every single lesson I learned at FIT has manifested itself in my career. Design involves everything, and FIT prepares you for anything!”
Lia Sfiligoj, A&DD class of 2016

Senior Designer, Droga5

“In my role as a visual designer at IBM CIO Design, I get to work on a variety of projects from digital product design to branding and sometimes even print. I love that the work we do is to improve the daily lives of our users, the 350,000+ employees of IBM.”
Kathleen O’Brien, Class of 2019

Experience Designer, IBM

“Something specific to the A&DD BFA program that really helped me is the focus on the creative technology courses. What I learned from these classes made me stand out from other candidates when interviewing and securing job offers.”
Ashley Centrella, Class of 2015

Senior Art Director, Deutsch NY

LET’S START CONNECTING
Say Hello!

Feel free to send us any comments, questions, or just to say “hi.” We would love to hear from you.