UC Davis offers the University of California’s only comprehensive Department of Design in which students engage in multiple areas of design practice, rather than pursuing a single path. Why? Because design is increasingly multidisciplinary and collaborative. When they leave campus for their careers, our students are prepared to work with everyone in the room: those doing engineering, coding, manufacturing or actually using our designs. Design is for those who want to deepen their creative, communications and interpersonal skills at the same time they develop in-depth skills in multiple areas of design.

Major Requirements

The UC Davis Design Program, the only comprehensive academic design unit in the University of California system, delivers a research focused undergraduate (B.A.) curriculum that fully integrates design history, theory and criticism, with design thinking, making, writing, visual literacy, and creative practice. Studio courses include design as practiced in exhibition, fashion, information, interior architecture and product (lighting and furniture), textiles, visual communications (digital, environmental, and print) and sustainable design.