Art Center College of Design

Art Center College of Design is a private art and design college in Pasadena, California, founded in 1930 by Edward A. Adams in Los Angeles and moved to its hillside campus in Pasadena in 1976. A South Campus in downtown Pasadena later added space for film, photography, and graduate studios. It is a specialist design college rather than a comprehensive university.

Departments cover transportation and industrial design, interaction design, entertainment design, film, illustration, photography, and media. Graduate studios, industry-sponsored projects with automotive and entertainment firms, and the Designmatters social-impact program shape advanced work.

About 2,000 students enroll, with a modest graduate share and a sizable international cohort, especially from East Asia. Faculty are largely working designers. Alumni include concept artist Syd Mead, automotive designer Chris Bangle, and filmmaker Zack Snyder.

Graduate study is mainly studio master's degrees, including MFA and MDes titles, with project-based supervision and industry critiques. The calendar is three terms across the year. Scholarships are competitive and often merit-based. Students live in Pasadena, with Los Angeles studios and manufacturers as the professional setting.

In the Grad School Navigator directory, Art Center College of Design lists 1 master's program, in communication/media/journalism|environmental design.