Networking is easy when you don’t need to leave the classroom. Many of our faculty members hire a steady stream of students to intern at their agencies, providing them with professional experience and industry connections before they even graduate. Alumni stay connected and often enlist their former classmates on professional projects; there’s a built-in career network all around you.



Our students have interned and/or secured full-time positions at The New York Times, Apple, Google, HBO, NBC Universal, Warner Music Group, Equinox, MTV, NAYA, Shopify, Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, Zoom, Hearst, Madison Square Garden, and Horizon Sports and renowned design and advertising agencies including Pentagram, Deutsch, McCann, Dentsu Creative, COLLINS, Wieden + Kennedy, FCB NY, Buck, loyalkaspar, Hobbes, Mother Design, Sunday Afternoon, Mischief, Gretel, Mojo Supermarket, 72andSunny, Jones Knowles Ritchie, &Walsh, and Wolff Ollins.

Internships are also available right here on campus, within BFA Advertising and at the college’s in-house design studio, Visual Arts Press. Although internal, these roles are demanding and offer firsthand experience in a professional environment.

You’re not just learning it, you’re living it: classes are regularly held at instructors’ agency offices, where you’ll work with real clients from environmental nonprofits to tech startups as part of SVA’s own student ad agency. All seniors take the Advertising Agency Portfolio course, home of the Ad Lab, where they gain firsthand experience crafting impactful campaigns to graduate with actual client work already in their portfolios.

Recent campaigns include promotional assets, a brand-new logo, and the launch strategy for the go-to-market launch of the fashion sustainability and AI startup GoodFit, as well as a food waste campaign for the global non-profit WildAid in partnership with the James Beard Foundation, which was displayed on billboards across major U.S. cities. Stay tuned for more on our in-progress collab with PRINT!

Select students participate in BFA Design collaborations as well, such as the recent partnership with the NASA Office of STEM Engagement to design posters promoting the upcoming Artemis II mission (check out the coverage on NY1 News!), and the collaboration with Disney on Broadway for a theater display to celebrate The Lion King musical's 25th anniversary.

Good advertising changes with the times, as does our ever-evolving curriculum, which adapts to current industry trends and incorporates cutting-edge technology to better meet the needs of our innovation-hungry students. Explore game design, creative coding, generative design, augmented/virtual reality, and AI workflows, learning how to integrate these with motion graphics, interaction design, branding, design for fashion, and more.



Whether you’re meeting for class in the metaverse, manipulating images with sound and camera inputs, or designing a touchscreen dining table, you’ll keep your finger on the pulse, ready for the many advertising careers on the frontier of innovation. 

A prototyping hub exclusive to our program, the Wilde Lab is equipped with the latest tools and technology to transform digital ideas into physical reality. Branded packaging, product prototypes, zines, stickers, merch, and more come to life thanks to multicolor 3D printers, an embroidery machine, direct-to-surface UV printers, plotter/cutters, portable printers, and laser cutting and etching. 

Additionally, our DIC offers large-scale printing, bookbinding, 3D printing, and risograph printing, as well as state-of-the-art smart classrooms for experimentation with programs such as the generative design tool TouchDesigner and powerful 2D animation software Cavalry.

Discover the new and niche without committing to a full course, thanks to rotating workshops on trending topics taught by professional guests. Students have enhanced their knowledge of data-driven marketing, advanced Figma, physical computing, game design, code for interactive webpages, generative design, hand-lettering for signs, and more, with new workshops introduced each semester to reflect this dynamic industry.

Teamwork is a vital soft skill that enables our students to succeed in agencies and studios of all sizes, and nowhere is it better developed than during our bi-annual design hackathons. In one weekend, student teams respond to design briefs about climate change, communication challenges, and social issues and prototype a solution in just 24 hours using cutting-edge technology. Teams receive mentorship and feedback from industry professionals, with past judges from Microsoft, Google, Meta, Verizon, and Instagram. Recently, one of our students secured a paid interaction design internship by leveraging their hackathon experience.

When our instructors aren't teaching, you can find them at Google, Pentagram, HBO, Amazon, Penguin Random House, Madison Square Garden, Hearst, COLLINS, AKQA, Shopify, Horizon Sports, Zoom, 72andSunny, and Jones Knowles Ritchie, to name a few. All faculty work in the industry, bringing up-to-the-minute field knowledge and network connections straight into the classroom.

Our distinguished faculty have been awarded by every major advertising competition, from the Emmy Awards, Cannes Lions, Clios, and One Show, to ADDYs, Webby Awards, and D&AD, as well as five Cooper Hewitt Design Award recipients and four AIGA Lifetime Achievement medalists among them. These are authorities in the field who have shaped advertising and design as we know it today.

Our An Evening With lecture series hosts design and advertising professionals at the top of their field (think Paula Scher and Natasha Jen from Pentagram, Leo Porto from PORTO ROCHA, Bill Oberlander from OBERLAND, and Debra Bishop from The New York Times) for exclusive discussions on industry insider tips, the creative process, and pathways to professional success.

Our department supports students in entering their work into major advertising competitions, including Young Ones, the Clios, the ADDY's, Graphis New Talent, PRINT, D&AD New Blood, Indigo, the Webby Awards, and more. Each year, our students garner hundreds of wins—493 during this academic year alone—an unparalleled achievement in design and advertising education. As a result, we are listed as a Top Advertising and Design School by the One Club for Creativity and GDUSA.

Student portfolios are reviewed at the end of every academic year, starting with sophomore year. By monitoring their progress, our students always leave equipped with robust portfolios filled with only their best work. The department hosts an Industry Review Day for graduating seniors each May, where industry professionals such as editors, designers, and creative directors are invited to meet with our students and network with the emerging talent.

Unlike any other art school’s advertising department, ours holds exhibitions at world-class professional venues, including Vanderbilt Hall at Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Plaza, Madison Avenue, and The Citicorp Building. These shows are widely attended and over the years have been covered by NBC, CBS, ABC, NY1, and CNN. Each spring, students have a chance to exhibit work in SVA’s Gramercy Gallery and gain exposure at the public opening reception. The year also ends with the Emerging Media Showcase, consisting of a panel of leaders in the field of emerging tech and media held at the SVA Theatre. The Showcase wraps with Q&A, and a screening of the best of the best of our students’ motion, interaction, and emerging media work all up on the big screen.

Scholarships are provided from a variety of sources, including the SVA Alumni Society, the Visual Arts Foundation, and our own department. Scholarships are merit-based, awarded to students based on their GPA and end-of-year portfolio review. The department also supports student applications for scholarships offered by institutions like AIGA and The One Club, among others.

Our student representative strives to create a sense of community while further connecting students with their program staff, planning parties, movie nights, and co-working sessions so students feel right at home in the Big Apple.

Connect more deeply with other students, faculty, and alumni through the Before & After podcast, where student hosts develop their on-air skills by interviewing peers and industry professionals alike, and through SVA’s award-winning yearbook, where students work in a mini editorial design lab led by the Executive Director of the TDC to create custom typefaces and layouts.

Be a part of the larger SVA community as a student government leader with VASA, a member of one of our many campus clubs, a contributor to the Visual Opinion magazine, or a DJ for the WSVA radio station.