2014
_17
80
Alumni
visual
communication
design
2014
_17
80
Alumni
Periodically the UW Design Division conducts a survey of our alumni from the programs of Visual Communication Design, Industrial Design, and Interaction Design. The 2014–2017 survey of B.Design alumni from Visual Communication Design was conducted online and received a 99% response rate (79 out of 80 graduates). If we were unable to contact you, please get in touch—we would love to include your data.
Over the past seven years, the average size of the graduating class in VCD has been 20 students. Grey bars indicate student attrition.
Over the past seven years, the VCD program has been 75% female and 25% male.
The average age of VCD students at graduation is 23. This average has trended downward as more native freshmen are recruited into design.
The first job after graduation is most often either a full-time job in design (54%) or a design internship (31%).
The majority (66%) of VCD alumni find employment within one month after graduation. More than half (53%) of all students secured employment during their senior year, before graduation.
On average, 69% of VCD juniors had a design internship during the summer quarter or the academic year.
Of 80 VCD alumni surveyed, 92% (73) are currently employed in the field of design (one is in graduate school, one could not be contacted, and five are employed in non-design fields).
Design employment occurs in corporations (55%), design/ advertising/ marketing consultancies (21%), self-employment/ freelance (11%), and nonprofit organizations (4%).
The following corporations/organizations employed 2014–2017 VCD graduates:
Retailers/Services/Products
Arc.Dev (Palo Alto, CA)
Blizzard Entertainment (Seattle, WA)
Boeing (Everett, WA)
Central Co-Op (Seattle, WA)
Docklight (Seattle, WA)
Ethos Life (San Francisco, CA)
The Florentine (Chicago, IL)
Fluke (Everett, WA)
Greenhouse (Indonesia)
Moment (Seattle, WA)
Nordstrom (Seattle, WA)
Nutpods (Seattle, WA)
Offcn (Beijing City, China)
Ozone Design (New York, NY)
Singing Serpent (San Diego, CA)
Starbucks (Seattle, WA)
Stretch 22 (Seattle, WA)
Wealthfront (Palo Alto, CA)
Yangzhou Heat Exchange (Yanhzhou, China)
Technology
Airbnb (San Francisco, CA)
Amazon (Seattle, WA)
Apptio (Bellevue, WA)
Instagram (New York, NY)
Google (Seattle, WA)
Microsoft (Redmond, WA)
MOZ (Seattle, WA)
Oracle (Seattle, WA)
Pinterest (Seattle, WA)
TinyPulse (Seattle, WA)
Uber (New York, NY)
WeTransfer (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Studios/Agencies
The Charles NYC (New York, NY)
Cognition Studio (Seattle, WA)
Dapper + Associates (Seattle, WA)
Divine Dizine (Seattle, WA)
Doberman (New York, NY)
Frog (San Francisco, CA)
Indigo Slate (Bellevue, WA)
Lippincott (New York, NY)
New Engen Inc. (Seattle, WA)
Novum Diseno Ecuador (Manta, Ecuador)
Plastic Sunshine (Portland, OR)
Studio Mega (Portland, OR)
Studio SC (Seattle, WA)
Tether Inc. (Seattle, WA)
Vectorform (Seattle, WA)
Nonprofits
Committee for Children (Seattle, WA)
Fred Hutch, Cancer Research (Seattle, WA)
Japan Teaching Program (Gunma, Japan)
Seattle Public Schools (Seattle, WA)
Publishing
Bloomberg Business (New York, NY)
Phillips Publishing Group (Seattle, WA)
SagaCity Media (Seattle, WA)
Ten Speed Press (San Francisco, CA)
The majority of VCD students (70% = 55/79) are from Washington state. After graduation, approximately half of all alumni (58% = 46/79) remain in Washington, with 48% staying in Seattle. Many alumni do relocate after graduation; the major markets are California (14%, primarily San Francisco and Los Angeles), and New York City (13%).