Illustration

In the Illustration BFA program you gain a broad-based sense of what’s possible within the field and enjoy opportunities to master traditional and advanced skills for creating effective, communicative work.

The MFA in Illustration encourages you to reflect on the illustrator‘s role as an influential social actor and readies you to turn your practice to the benefit of society and transformation of the field.

For more than 20 years, Shepard Fairey has critiqued and shaped popular culture through guerrilla art campaigns of global proportions. A graphic designer, entrepreneur and fine artist, he’s perhaps best known for his ubiquitous 2008 Hope poster of Barack Obama, which is in the permanent collection at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. He also works in the commercial realm through his LA-based agency Studio Number One.

Julia Rothman combines disparate interests into a career of her own making. She freelances as an illustrator and pattern designer, creating products, designs and branding for clients like Anthropologie, Crate & Barrel, The New York Times and others. In addition, Rothman runs the design studio Also with two RISD friends and has published a growing number of books, including Drawn In, The Exquisite Book, Farm Anatomy, Hello NY and Nature Anatomy.

A 2026 recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant,” Vincent Valdez reflects Latino experiences and the contemporary US through painted representations of historical and present-day scenes. Going beyond depictions of past moments of injustice, the Texas-based artist’s work interrogates how violence and resistance persist in the here and now. Reflecting on RISD, Valdez says one of the most important things he learned is the importance of discipline and commitment to practice: To make really meaningful breakthroughs, he says, “you have to show up and work.”