School of Design
From designing communication to products, and everything in between. Build a strong foundation at UT, while shaping your own path in the design world.
Why Design at UT?
We know that design is not a formula. It is not a linear means to an end, but a process shaped by curiosity, experimentation, unexpected turns, and surprising outcomes. Studios are open spaces for dialogue, creative exploration, and hands-on making, where our design students challenge and inspire one another with generosity and respect. Students follow their instincts, take risks, test ideas, and learn through doing alongside faculty who are deeply invested in their education. Design is guided by both intuition and strategic thinking, grounded in material and cultural understanding, and strengthened by humor and humility. A design education at UT prepares students to move into a world that values critical thinking, empathetic understanding, imaginative problem solving, and the confidence to make ideas tangible.
Read about our accreditation status and requirements.
Our Degrees
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Industrial Design
Supplement Your Major
The Graphic Design Studies Minor is open to students from any discipline across the university interested in enhancing their major field of study with an understanding of graphic design.
From Foundations to Portfolio
The School of Design requires no portfolio for initial admission. Instead, every student begins with a first-year foundations experience that builds the technical skills, confidence, and design understanding needed for advanced study. This creates a level playing field for anyone, regardless of their creative background, to work towards a School of Design degree program.
At the end of the first year, students participate in a structured portfolio review as application for continuation into upper-division study. Students are reviewed for engagement, development, creative potential, and readiness by faculty teaching in the foundations program. Such a benchmark review is not only required by NASAD, the accrediting body for the School of Design, it also ensures that students from across the State of Tennessee, and the country, are able to come experience design and find their footing before they make the commitment to the major. And should the School of Design not be your landing place, the courses you take will not only provide you with an invaluable skill set that you can take with you, they also count toward your university VolCore requirements as well as the School of Design minors in Graphic Design and Industrial Design Studies.
