The Graphic Design Program at OSU offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and consists of three primary areas of focus: Graphic Design, Illustration, and Electronic Media.  Students gain entrance into the program after taking Graphic Design 1, Typography 1, Illustration 1, and passing a competitive portfolio/entrance review.

Graphic designers are responsible for all kinds of visual images which affect virtually everyone in every segment of society: posters, package design, record albums, sales brochures, letterheads, annual reports, trademarks, logos, books, magazines, calendars, and billboards.  Students at OSU work on projects organized to develop their hand skills and design sense in lettering, typography, layout, and design. Graduates have become art directors, staff designers, production artists, illustrators, typographers, and freelance artists working on a wide range of projects.

Illustration has long been a primary feature in books, but today it can also be seen in a variety of areas such as editorial illustration, film, technical material, and also as an accompaniment to design in areas such as packaging, record sleeves, greetings cards, etc. It is also prevalent in the lucrative field of advertising. An illustrator today can work in any or all of the above fields, in a market that is becoming more and more conducive to accepting a wide range of illustrative styles, in a variety of media such as acrylic, gouache, oil, airbrush, watercolor, scratchboard, and many others. The illustrator, in whatever style or media he or she chooses, will aim to produce a visually stimulating image that will effectively convey a given body of information.

Electronic Media is media that utilizes electronic transmission for the end user (audience) to access the content. This is in contrast to static media (mainly print media), which is most often created electronically, but doesn't require electricity to be accessed by the end user in the printed form. The primary electronic media sources familiar to the general public are better known as animation (2d and 3d), video, audio recordings, multimedia presentations, slide presentations, interactive and web design. Most new media is in the form of digital media. However, electronic media may be in either analog (video) or digital format (computer). Through their course of study, students are guided to become both critical consumers of mass media and competent, ethical electronic media professionals.