Visual Communication

Major | Minor

Get hands-on learning in graphic design, web design, art, photography, filmmaking, and data visualization. Discover how images, video, and text can inform, persuade, and engage our world.

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Why Study Visual Communication?

In today’s digital world, how we communicate is diverse and ever-changing. The way we process information and communicate ideas has become more visual. Studying visual communication teaches you more than how to produce media. You will also learn about media’s historical and contemporary impact on society.

Why Study Visual Communication at Luther?

Media creators today are asked to be knowledgeable and fluent across the entire spectrum of media generation. Luther’s deeply passionate faculty will push you to approach visual content creation from every possible angle. You’ll learn how to capture and express information in multiple mediums.

At Luther, we’ll teach you to think broadly and solve problems creatively so that you’ll be ready to work in a number of fields after you graduate.

You’ll also find that we prepare you beyond your career. Studying visual communication at Luther will help you express your beliefs, values, and knowledge throughout your life.

Program Highlights

Facilities

You’ll have access to our Digital Media Center, which has a full video production studio and a multi-station editing lab. And you can use our Makerspace, which is a growing resource for the Luther community to create, build, and prototype.

Real-World Experience

Luther’s visual communication program connects you with some transformative internships. For example, you can get real-world experience at Collider and Mayo Clinic through Luther’s Rochester Semester. You’ll work on website and digital video production, television series, and video games.

Creativity Showcase

Every semester, students showcase their creative work through the Ultra Mega Mega festival. Students in Visual Communication and other visual and performing arts disciplines present their films, graphic design, photographs, user experience design, painting, dance and theater scenes, and more.

What You’ll Learn

Luther’s visual communication program draws from many fields of study. It includes communication studies, computer science, data science, management, and English. It focuses on visual art forms that convey ideas and information, such as drawing, graphic design, illustration, advertising, animation, and more. Our visual communication program will provide you with a framework to create, understand, and critically engage with media. You’ll get excellent career preparation for graphic design, web design, media production, and other media fields. You’ll also:

  • Learn the fundamentals of the digital tools used in the creation of graphics, visual persuasion, color, imaging, and design.
  • Acquire skills central to journalism and professional writing for various media. This includes newspapers, print magazines, and electronic journalism.
  • Learn how to properly engage, analyze, and evaluate mediated texts and practices, in addition to articulating and creating arguments about their cultural, political, and social merits.
  • Use principles and methods of visual media production and apply them in research and analysis.

Curriculum

My plan is to use my camera to tell stories of home. I want to change the narrative that people believe and through that possibly change the situation of at least a few people back home.
Ahmad Danesh Rassa '22
VISUAL COMMUNICATION MAJOR
Stories

Careers and Outcomes

As a graduate of Luther’s visual communication program, you’ll develop the broad thinking and problem-solving skills to be a meaningful addition to any number of fields.

Career Fields

  • Graphic design
  • Web design
  • User experience design
  • Filmmaking
  • Photography
  • Marketing/advertising
  • Data visualization
  • 3-D animation
  • Multimedia production

Employers

  • Vesterheim Norwegian-American Museum
  • Buena Vista University
  • Luther College
  • Plant Scape

Visual Communication

Portrait of Nancy Le

Luther College senior Nancy Le received the 2024 Joy Tlou Memorial Award in recognition of her contributions to campus life, encouraging a “community of joy.” 

Portrait of James Cada and Susanne Egli

Luther College’s Center for Ethics and Public Engagement (The CEPE) will celebrate the 25th anniversary of David Lynch’s “The Straight Story,” with a free screening and discussion with one of the film’s stars in early April. The film is based on the true story of Alvin Straight of Laurens, Iowa, who rode his lawn mower tractor across the state and part of Wisconsin to reunite with his estranged brother. 

A group of students stand holding paper.

Phi Beta Kappa is the oldest and most respected undergraduate honors organization in the United States. The society has fostered and recognized excellence in the liberal arts and sciences since 1776.

Norse News

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