The College of Design is requiring that design students take an extra studio class. The name of the class is Art: Graphic Design 471.

There was fear from some students that implementing the class for design students could interfere with graduation, but according to associate professor Debra Satterfield, that will not be the case.

“Any time that changes are made, some people get confused,” Satterfield said. “However, we are excited about the new opportunities that students will get and we hope that this will showcase their skills and prepare them to be highly sought-after design professionals.”

Design students have the choice to take an option studio course as indicated in their catalog or to substitute the new, more innovate capstone course in place of their studio class.

“Therefore there are no additional credits required, and no students will be delayed or changed in their graduation schedules,” Satterfield said.

This class is available only to senior students in their second semester, as a capstone experience course.

“By ‘capstone’ we mean it is designed to utilize all of the students design skills in ways that stretch their design thinking and problem solving abilities, much in the same way projects will do in their careers,” Satterfield said. “It is meant to be different from a traditional studio class and will help students branch out in terms of using creativity and innovation in complex problem solving.”

Senior design students had the option to take the class this semester.

“They are offering it to seniors this year as a beta course,” said Ryan Hubbard, senior in graphic design. “I think it’s a good idea. People need to be patient and let it develop a little bit.”

According to Nathan Kirkman, also a senior in graphic design, the class will give graphic design students the opportunity to focus on as well as go in depth on one project.

“Each section has a topic, and you’re allowed to choose a branch of that topic,” Kirkman said.

The topics for the studio class have been selected to have the most relevance to the situations that designers are involved with today and will have a high degree of customizability for each student.

“We are looking forward to offering these courses and feel that they are the direction that the most influential design schools worldwide are taking to prepare students to be design thinkers and positively impact society,” Satterfield said.