B.S. in Design & Innovation

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Program Distinctives

• Rigorous education from a Christ-centered perspective.
• Accessible and accomplished Christian faculty – Faculty in the departments of Communication and Design, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing serve as mentors and their personal investment in students’ lives often extends far beyond graduation.
• Build your creative portfolio – Develop and demonstrate your design skills in print, web, and branding.
• Learn how to apply design thinking principles to business problems, marketing challenges, and growth opportunities in both for-profit and nonprofit contexts.
• Research opportunities – Work alongside experienced, published faculty in areas including art, journalism, and public relations, as well as applied research opportunities with companies such as IBM, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundations, among others.
• Internship opportunities – Gain practical experience in design and innovation across a wide range of professional environments, and tap our vast alumni network for a variety of unique opportunities.
• Business Advisory Group –A group of accomplished alumni and friends of the College who are eager to connect you with job opportunities and keep our program up to date on the latest industry developments, hiring practices, required skills, and technology trends to help us best prepare you for success.
• Active student-led groups – Get involved in a variety of student groups including the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Communications Association, Business Initiative for Leadership Development (BuILD), Management Association, and American Marketing Association.
• Vocation-enriching humanities core classes – Deepen your critical thinking, writing, and other communication skills while cultivating empathy and a well-rounded worldview.

Featured Spaces & Resources

• Dynamic learning spaces – Diverse classroom, studio, and gallery spaces conducive to collaborative and independent work, including:
  • Design studio with spacious drafting tables and optional access to a fully equipped art studio with easels, potter’s wheels, kilns, and hand-building equipment and tools.
  • Apple© media lab.
  • Habbershon Family Innovation Zone – designed for students of all majors to utilize for brainstorming, collaborating, and more – featuring moveable tables, chairs, and six double-sided whiteboards that can be wheeled around the space.
  • State-of-the-art classrooms in our renovated Smith Hall, providing sliding whiteboards and screens built into work stations for collaborative work.
• The Center for Entrepreneurship + Innovation – Benefit from this experiential component of our business school, which recently earned national entrepreneurship distinction for its “bold and innovative” model of best practices in innovative entrepreneurship education. Learn more about Grove City College’s unique approach to redemptive entrepreneurship.
• Award-winning VentureLab – An early-stage business development and social enterprise idea-feasibility lab that provides funding and guidance to student teams who want to advance new product development and business ventures.
• Opportunity to attend Praxis Academy:
  • A program for builders and entrepreneurs that provides communal learning and work experiences putting faith into action.
  • Participants learn from imaginative exemplars of redemptive leadership and build authentic relationships with students from all over the world.
  • Alumni of the program benefit from resources such as a talent network and job board to find roles in a wide variety of exciting ventures.

Career Opportunities & Outcomes

• Career paths: graphic designer, web designer, art director, design strategist, user experience designer, interactive designer, creative director, digital marketer, social media specialist, business owner, entrepreneur, director of marketing, and more.
• Exceptional career outcomes – Like 95% of Grove City graduates, you too will be prepared to pursue a full-time position with an established organization, start your own world-changing business or nonprofit, or continue your education at one of the nation’s top graduate programs within six months of graduation.
  • Many of our graduates have become leaders in their fields, building careers with large companies and small nonprofits such as The Cleveland City Mission, Charles Koch Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and design and advertising agencies around the country.
  • You may also choose to pursue a master’s degree at a top-ranked graduate institution such as Kent State University, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, and Case Western. The degree in design and innovation will prepare you for a wide range of master’s programs in the fields of design and business.
• Equipped for success – Whether you’re crafting logos for promising start-ups, managing web design for a private or corporate business, or creating meaningful user experiences, you will be well equipped to initiate business ventures of all kinds. If you want to promote societal transformation and economic growth in a creative capacity, there’s no better place to build the required skill set, mindset, and confidence than Grove City College.

Program Specifics

• 63 major credit hours of rigorous coursework to build your foundation in design, entrepreneurship, marketing, and communication. As a student in our cross-disciplinary program, you will master design principles and methods; learn how to use high-end design technology including Adobe InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, and more; cultivate design thinking and digital marketing strategies; study brand development, product prototyping, and lean entrepreneurship; and explore the social, ethical, and environmental impact of innovative design solutions.
  • Required courses include Intro to Visual Communication Design, Design Thinking, Visual Communication Design I, II, and III, Interactive Design and User Experience, Intro to Website Development, Entrepreneurial Mind, Life Design Studio, Lean LaunchPad, Principles of Marketing, and Writing for the Media.
  • Additional elective options include Strategic Marketing, New Product Development and Management, Consumer Behavior, E-Commerce, Search Engine Optimization, Digital Entrepreneurship, Social Media Writing, and Design in Practice, among others.
  • For detailed course descriptions, please refer to the College Catalog.
• Complementary minors available in studio art, marketing, creative writing, and more.
• If your career interests lie more heavily in communication, entrepreneurship, or business, you may be interested in our B.A. in Communication Arts, or the B.S. in Entrepreneurship among other robust business degrees.

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Student & Alumni Stories

Annie Grace Smith '24
B.S. in Design & Innovation

Caleb Warrick '24
B.S. in Design & Innovation

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