Your first year at CCAD will help you develop skills that will take you from a creative who thinks they belong at an art and design school to one who knows they do.

In CCAD's First-Year Experience, you'll be introduced to the physical and digital tools you’ll use throughout your time in college. You’ll ask yourself and others meaningful questions through processes like critiques that support your growth as an artist and designer. You’ll collaborate with your classmates to deepen your problem solving skills. And you’ll take classes that will help sharpen your critical thinking and communication abilities.

By the end of your first year, you’ll know how to track a creative idea from start to finish, how to go deeper into the process of making (not just focus on the finished product!), and how to look for multiple solutions to a problem. And all of that will make you a better, more confident artist or designer.


Course Spotlight

2D Creative Practices

Explore the foundations of creative design through 2D, 3D, and 4D approaches. Students learn color theory, composition, and layout while developing inventive visual solutions using traditional and digital tools. Each fall, work from Creative Practices is projected on the side of Grant Labs in collaboration with OBLSK, giving first-semester students a chance to see their projects light up campus.

First Year Experience Course of Study

Academic Year

Fall 2023 - Spring 2024

First-Year Fall

Course Title
Collaboration
Systems of Drawing
2D Creative Practices

First-Year Spring

Course Title
What Can Drawing Do
Drawing for Entertainment Design
3D Making with Care

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Your college education is a major investment in you—your work, your passions, and your vision for the future.
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