Design School
Pennsylvania College of Art and Design
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2026★ GDUSA Top Design School 2025★ GDUSA Top Design School 2024★ GDUSA Top Design School 2022★ GDUSA Top Design School 2021★ GDUSA Top Design School 2020★ GDUSA Top Design School 2019★ GDUSA Top Design School 2018★ GDUSA Top Design School 2017★ GDUSA Top Design School 2016★ GDUSA Top Design School 2015
Award-winning work from Pennsylvania College of Art and Design students and alumni recognized by the GDUSA American Graphic Design Awards.
GDUSA Editorial Honors
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2026
At Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, we are makers and dreamers, designers and entrepreneurs. Here students learn to make creativity their careers. Located in the heart of Lancaster city’s thriving arts community, inspiration is found around every corner. It’s the personal attention and guidance from our faculty of working artists, coupled with internships and hands-on experiences, that set us apart. A hallmark of our Graphic Design program is our annual Designathon event, a day-long push of brainstorming, designing, refining, production, and presentations, as students and faculty create free marketing materials — logos, websites, brochures, and branding — for local nonprofits. This deadline-driven adrenaline-filled experience prepares students well for their futures as they learn to design under pressure.
pcad.edu/degrees/graphic-design
Creative Comment: What AI Can and Cannot Do
We Want To Hear From You!
GDUSA Digital Magazine: April 2026
FEATURE Highlight
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2025
At Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, we are makers and dreamers, designers and entrepreneurs. Here students learn to make creativity their careers. Located in the heart of Lancaster city’s thriving arts community, inspiration is found around every corner. It’s the personal attention and guidance from our faculty of working artists, coupled with internships and hands-on experiences, that set us apart. A hallmark of our Graphic Design program is our annual Designathon event, a day-long push of brainstorming, designing, refining, production, and presentations, as students and faculty create free marketing materials — logos, websites, brochures, and branding — for local nonprofits. This deadline-driven adrenaline-filled experience prepares students well for their futures as they learn to design under pressure.
https://pcad.edu/degrees/graphic-design/
Creative Comment: What AI Can and Cannot Do
We Want To Hear From You!
GDUSA Digital Magazine: April 2026
FEATURE Highlight
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2024
At Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, we are makers and dreamers, designers, and entrepreneurs. Here students learn to make creativity their careers. Located in the heart of Lancaster city’s thriving arts community, inspiration is found around every corner. As a micro-college, it’s the personal attention and guidance from our faculty of working artists, coupled with internships and hands-on experiences, that set us apart. A hallmark of our Graphic Design program is our annual Designathon event, a day-long push of brainstorming, designing, refining, production, and presentations, as students and faculty create free marketing materials — logos, websites, brochures, and branding — for local nonprofits. This deadline-driven adrenaline-filled experience prepares students well for their futures as they learn to design under pressure.
Contact: pcad.edu/degrees/graphic-design
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2022
At Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, we are makers and dreamers, designers and entrepreneurs. Here students learn to make creativity their careers. Located in the heart of Lancaster city’s thriving arts community, inspiration is found around every corner. As a micro-college, it’s the personal attention and guidance from our faculty of working artists, coupled with internships and hands-on experiences, that set us apart. A hallmark of our Graphic Design program is our annual Designathon event, a 24-hour push of brainstorming, designing, refining, production, and presentations, as students and faculty create free marketing materials — logos, websites, brochures, and branding — for local nonprofits. This deadline-driven adrenaline-filled experience prepares students well for their futures as they learn to design under pressure.
Contact: pcad.edu/degrees/graphic-design
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2021
PCAD, a fully accredited art college, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In the graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate, and the required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field.
Contact: www.pcad.edu
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2020
PCAD, a fully accredited art college in Lancaster PA, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In the graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate, and the required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field.
Contact: www.pcad.edu
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2019
PCAD, a fully accredited art college in Lancaster PA, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In the graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate, and the required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field.
pcad.edu
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2018
PCAD, a fully accredited art college in Lancaster PA, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In the graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate, and the required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field.
pcad.edu
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2017
PCAD a fully accredited art college in Lancaster PA, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In the graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers who bring professional jobs to the classroom as competitive assignments. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate. The required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field.
pcad.edu
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2016

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Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, a fully accredited art college in Lancaster, PA, believes graphic design provides a means to communicate powerfully and effectively through images and typography. In PCA&D’s graphic design program, students focus on demanding conceptual and technical courses, enhanced by gradual involvement with clients. Benefiting from a curriculum informed by PCA&D’s over-arching education philosophy “Communications as Currency,” students experience how the creative process involves collaborating with other designers, photographers, digital artists, and illustrators to meet the needs of a client. All faculty are freelance or full-time designers who bring professional jobs to the classroom as competitive assignments. Selected designs enhance students’ portfolios with professional work before they graduate. The required senior internship is the perfect opportunity to demonstrate skills to potential employers. The senior year culminates with the final portfolio and senior exhibition, honing presentation skills. PCA&D’s graphic design BFA program is structured to prepare students to work successfully in this highly competitive field. Our forward-looking curriculum, experienced faculty and staff, current technology and life in the creative City of Lancaster, combine to support our students— the new generation of artists and designers: “Strong Thinkers, Strong Makers, Strong Communicators.” Contact
★ GDUSA Top Design School 2015
Founded in 1982, this private, professional art college offers BFA degrees, certificates, credentials, and curricula that enable students of all ages to pursue art as their life’s work. The educational philosophy is described as “Communication as Currency in the Curriculum.” This means that the institution’s learning experience teaches students adaptive thinking techniques and effective making skills that result in a deliberate and influential artistic voice. Students engage with an interactive process of concept, construction, critique, and redesign in an immersive experiential environment. Because visual, verbal, and virtual communication is increasingly valued in a global society, the curriculum emphasizes the relationships among thinking, making, and communicating. Students are transformed as they are challenged to cultivate expansive points-of-view and create sophisticated visual output. Graduates are said to be “strong thinkers, strong makers, and strong communicators.”
pcad.edu
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