B.A. – Design Arts & Practices

The Bachelor of Arts in Design Arts & Practices (DAP) degree will provide you the opportunity to develop a  foundation in design thinking and making from an interdisciplinary perspective that you will be able to apply to a career in fields such as Experience and User Interface Design, Product Design, Industrial Design, Information Design, Graphic Design/Desktop Publishing, Interior and Spatial Design, Set and Exhibition Design, Environmental and Fashion Design, Art/Illustration, Multimedia Design/Animation, Art Direction, Web Design, and more.

To pursue this degree, you must choose one of the following four emphasis areas:

Print: Visual design studies with a focus on works on paper, such as publications, posters, games, comics, books, magazines, and more.  Offered to Main Campus students only. Download the BA DAP Print checklist for detailed information.

Screen: Visual design studies with a focus on works in digital form, such as websites, games, animation, apps, kiosks, and more. Offered to Main Campus students; also offered through Arizona Online. Download the BA DAP Screen checklist for detailed information.

Object Design: Design studies with a focus on works in 3D, including hand-held and portable products, furnishings, furniture, systems, and more. Offered to Main Campus students only, through the College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture.

Spatial Design: Design studies with a focus on works that take place, including human scale environments, situated events, interiors, exhibitions, urban spaces, and more. Offered to Main Campus students only, through the College of Architecture, Planning & Landscape Architecture.

This major is a great fit for you if you are passionate about art, design, and information, and how they come together and are applied to making a better world. In this interdisciplinary degree you will be able to take classes from the School of Art and the School of Information (Arizona’s iSchool). DAP students will develop core conceptual and technical skills to design artifacts and experiences across a range of scales and media. Project-based courses will build your abilities in problem solving and seeking, innovating with and through technologies, and developing creative visual strategies to address problems (climate change, social justice issues, representation and identity, education, limited water supplies, wildfires in local community, understanding information). History, theory, and academic courses will construct cultural frameworks for depth and breadth in research and application.

Courses across Art, Design, Information Science, and Technology in distinct, interdisciplinary ways will shape your degree plan moving from foundations and skills over the first two years, to theories and  issues, and a culminating capstone project. Capstone projects will be developed through transdisciplinary lenses, and will tackle challenges spanning fields from Social Justice, Design, and the Environment.