San Diego City College’s award-winning Graphic Design program has been ranked as the top educational program of its kind in the world by a London-based, graphic design industry nonprofit.
City also ranked second in the World Brand Society’s Global Design Education Ranking, which is based on cumulative number of points and awards secured in its competitions. City was the only community college on the World Brand Design Society’s lists for 2022-23.
“This says a lot about our faculty, our students, our mentorship, and our approach we take toward education,” said Graphic Design Professor Sean Bacon, who also serves as co-chair of the City College Visual and Performing Arts Department. “This truly is an outstanding program.”
City College amassed 17 awards at World Brand Design Society competitions, including a second-place award, a third-place award, along with two Gold and two Silver awards. Two students earned scholarships for their showing.
“The work highlights the students’ ambitions and the institution's exceptional quality of teaching,” the World Brand Design Society wrote on its website. “A big congratulations to the dedicated educators like Professor Sean Bacon and SDCC Faculty team.”
City College students also captured 19 of the 21 awards in the student category at the recent The One Club for Creativity – San Diego awards competition.
The recent showings illustrate the excellence permeating the Graphic Design program at City College.
City College Graphic Design prides itself as among the most respected programs in the region, with students often outperforming their peers from neighboring programs, including private and public four-year schools. Its excellence is rooted in a practical focus that is driven by training students to be ready to work in industry. This same training also prepares students for transfer to some of the best design schools in the country, including ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, the Academy of Art in San Francisco, and the School of Visual Arts in New York.
Alumni include Josh Higgins a former executive creative director at Facebook who once served as design director of President Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. Its students rebranded a mountaintop Italian village with panoramic views over the rolling hills of Tuscany. And graduating seniors are snapped up by some of the leading design firms in the region even before they complete their studies.
“The program changed my life both by giving me the tools and skills for a career in design, but additionally, it really helped me understand the importance of community and being an active participant and helping to drive positive impact in that community,” said Higgins, who now works as the Vice President/Global Executive Creative Director for Atlassian.
Higgins is not an outlier. Most graduates are either hired or transfer to a four-year college or university within three months of completing their studies. Many are hired almost immediately after presenting their work at the annual American Institute of Graphic Arts Portfolio Review each spring, an event at which City College students routinely take top honors in competitions against their counterparts at four-year colleges and universities and top-dollar private schools.
“Not only are we providing a top-notch, quality program, but our program also addresses equity and provides opportunity for all,” said Bacon, who noted that nearly two-thirds of the program’s more than 900 students who enroll annually are students of color.