GDUSA 2026 Top Design Schools & Programs
GDUSA’s favorite graphic design schools and programs preparing the next generation for a dream career in the real world. Our selections are informed, but not formulaic. They reflect years of conversation and collaboration with creative leaders, educators, administrators, hiring managers, recruiters and feedback from the community. The result is a curated, alphabetical roster encompassing the good and great traditional design schools, as well as a strategic selection of first-rate public and private university departments, and carefully chosen online-first programs for undergrads, grad students, and continuing education.
Enter Now | The 63rd Annual GDUSA Design Awards
Enter our flagship end-of-year, best-of-year awards program. Open to EVERYONE in the community: design firms, creative agencies, inhouse designers, freelancers, school and students, government and institutions, and more.
Span Graphics Support Bird-Safe Design Strategies
Flyway City, an exhibit at the Chicago Architecture Center, was designed and co-curated by architecture firm Studio Gang in collaboration with graphic design studio Span.
FutureBrand Appoints Simon Hill as Global President
Simon Hill will lead FutureBrand globally, with responsibility for its strategic direction, operations, and performance worldwide, reporting directly to McCann Global CEO Tyler Turnbull.
Cooper Hewitt Unveils National Design Collection
Cooper Hewitt will mark the nation’s 250th anniversary with a multi-year installation of the museum’s permanent collection.
Enter Our 63rd GDUSA Package Design Awards
Our 63rd anniversary competition celebrates the power of package design to tell the story, advance the brand, amplify the experience, make and reinforce the sale — to forge a connection at the moment of truth. Food & Beverages, Wine & Spirits, Home & Garden, Beauty & Personal Care, Luxury & Sustainability, and a dozen more categories.
A&G Designs The World’s Largest Soccer Ball
Measuring nearly 48 feet, this soccer ball scores the official Guinness World Records mark. It was designed by Allen & Gerritsen for Massport in connection with Boston’s hosting of several World Cup games.
Message From Billerud | 63rd GDUSA Print Survey
BIllerud is the exclusive sponsor of our 63rd annual print survey which finds new challenges for print designers but a reaffirmation of the enduring value of print. Below is information about Billerud’s extensive product offerings and services — they are a global leader in paper and packaging materials made with cellulose fibers. The body of the GDUSA June print survey edition is printed on Influence® Gloss, 60 lb. text from Billerud, high-quality coated No. 3 web paper.
AI Survey By Adobe Sees Positive Impact on Creators
Survey results reported by Adobe indicate that creative AI has become a core part of today’s creator economy. More than 16,000 creators across the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, India and Australia participated in the poll. A caveat: the survey leans heavily into emerging and social-first creatives.
Mother Design Opens Shop For Well-Designed Things
Mother Design Shop is a shop dedicated to well-designed analog crafts and is “mostly an excuse to share our love of design with the general public, meet new people, and have unexpected conversations.”
Think of Presentation Folder Design As Information Packaging
Like all effective packaging, a strategically designed presentation folder gives loose materials coherence, sequence, and logic, turning simple containment into a more deliberate user experience.
Design Army Reimagines Hong Kong’s Golden Age
Design Army’s campaign for Hong Kong Ballet’s life of Bruce Lee evokes a hyper-stylized 1970s Hong Kong nightlife as a backdrop for gravity-defying martial arts imagery.
Creative Comment: Good Design Is Felt Before It Is Explained
Great designers create harmony, clarity, and trust — the invisible qualities people feel before they think. Contrast that with AI…
Applied Design Pilots JFK Terminal 8 Branding
The branding and messaging program developed by Applied Design highlights a mix of local favorites, international icons, and hidden gems found at JFK T8. The design firm has also recently worked on travel destination projects at Grand Central Terminal and the new World Trade Center.
Wild Turkey and Pearlfisher Unveil Collectibles
Created by Associate Master Blender Bruce Russell, with package design by Pearlfisher, this new release taps into Wild Turkey’s heritage and origin story.
Interbrand Hearts Ronald McDonald House Refresh
Ronald McDonald House has refreshed its brand identity in an effort to increase understanding of its work and attract the next generation of donors. Interbrand and TBWA\Chiat\Day evolved the essential elements for clarity and purpose.
Creative Comment: Navigating the Crossroads
In her commentary ““Navigating the Crossroads: How to Design through Collaboration not Compromise, ”Amy Huang argues that for designers to work their magic, working through the cross-functional crossroads of stakeholder demands requires collaboration, not compromise.
Museum of Money Banks On Interactive Experiences
Luci and Fivestone Studios collaborated to create six interactive installations at the Museum of Money in Dallas TX. They are rooted in play-based learning and aimed at translating complex financial topics into approachable, memorable experiences.
Athletics Love Letter To New York City Soccer Scene
Malcolm Buick of brand studio Athletics has a passion project, &friends, a digital archive that documents and celebrates the teeming underground and overground soccer scene in New York City.
KFC Rebrand By JKR Welcomes You To The Bucketverse
KFC is rolling out an ambitious brand refresh, featuring the ubiquitous bucket and a more people pleasing Colonel Sanders, along with a revamp of its restaurants from static spaces toward something more modern, dynamic and hospitality-driven.
CBX Packaging for KitchenAid Aims At Consistency
CBX and KitchenAid introduce the home appliance brand’s first global packaging redesign in more than a decade. The updated system aims to improve consistency and flexibility across international markets.
A Smooth New Brand For European Wax Center
Yard NYC crafted the look and feel of the new EWC brand, promoting confidence, expertise and industry leadership.
Sam’s Club Sports New Lowercase Wordmark
A comprehensive new visual identity by Turner Duckworth for Sam’s Club features a bold, geometric custom typeface, Sam Sans, and reintroduces the brand’s familiar diamond icon as the apostrophe.
Lime Responds To World Cup With Fan Pass Campaign
Lime hopes to help fans and locals enhance their World Cup experience and minimize transportation disruptions. The heart of the initiative is a Fan Pass: discounted rides combined with events and activations. Creative and marketing for the campaign is being executed inhouse.
Sports Illustrated’s World Cup Visual Anthem
The June 2026 Issue will spotlight all 48 competing nations and their teams with 48 illustrated digital covers and 4 print covers.
Jeff Gilligan Upped to AVP, Creative Director at BMI
Jeff Gilligan leads design and advertising efforts, including branding, ad campaigns and events, company-wide.
Ad Agency Launches Botanical Brewing Company
Ad agency The Many launches Ceremony Botanical Brewing. The approach is to build every brew around a single botanical. The project includes branding and package design. Gen Z, argue the agency (and brewing company) co-founders, gravitates toward brands with stories, ingredients with histories and experiences that mean something.
Paul Manship Medal To Bishop and Konstantinidis
The Art Directors Club has recently relaunched the Paul Manship Medal. Inaugural recipients are Debra Bishop, founding design director of The New York Times for Kids, and Yannis Konstantinidis, director, creative director, and co-founder of NOMINT in London.
Cheers To 50 Years! CF NAPA Celebrates Milestone
For 50 years, CF NAPA has played an integral part in developing what is considered today the contemporary wine label. For the past 24 years, under the leadership of David Schuemann, the firm has developed and restaged countless successful alcohol brands through story, packaging, and visual ethos.
For 2026 Chicago Cubs, [THIS] Is Everything
The Chicago Cubs’ new slogan sparked immediate backlash from fans online — but as the season has taken shape [THIS] might be working.
Karbach Brewing Redesigns Lineup For 15th Anniversary
Four of Karbach’s flagship beers hit the shelves this month with a new visual identity developed in collaboration with Austin-based creative studio Helms Workshop.
Burgopak Packaging Pays Off For New KAST Card
Burgopak has developed packaging for KAST’s new physical payment card that is intended to feel like a natural extension of the global financial platform’s brand: sophisticated, easily accessible, premium.
Creative Comment: What AI Can and Cannot Do
In this piece, ‘AI vs. Agency,’ a branding thought leader explores what AI can — and cannot — do for a brand. Rachel Teoh argues that AI’s greatest risk to brands isn’t poor design, it’s convergent design.
Seven Legends To Be Inducted Into The One Club Hall
2026 inductees into The One Club Creative Hall of Fame and Educators Hall of Fame will be honored at a ceremony this fall; these lifetime achievement awards have been granted starting in 1961 with the induction of Leo Burnett. Shown here is creative visionary John C Jay.
Enter Our 63rd GDUSA Inhouse Design Awards
Final Deadline: Today Friday May 22 midnight. Our American Inhouse Design Awards™ is the original and premier showcase of creative excellence honoring the excellence of inhouse designers and departments at corporations, institutions, non-profits, media, education, government, and more.
Tavern Embraces Chaos For RTD Hyper Blast
Leaning heavily into 80s and 90s jet ski culture, Hyper Blast was created with modern heritage at the center, crafted to feel both familiar and entirely new. The design system seeks to embrace clutter, contrast and controlled chaos.
Little Big Evolves Lily From Mascot To Storyteller
Little Big’s package redesign focuses on clarifying and strengthening existing equities tied to Brown Cow’s history, simplicity, and distinctive cream-top yogurt experience.
Creative Comment: Brand & Product Design As One
In this piece, ‘When Brand and Product Design Become One,’ Allison Connell of Athletics asserts that today’s most successful brands behave as cohesive systems where typography, motion, interface behaviors, and content architecture all express the same idea.
JDO Rebrands Deli Kitchen With Radiant Sunburst
JDO’s redesign includes a bold new brandmark, poppy color, and illustrated subursts that add energy while also delivering a moment of discovery.
Now Live: 2026 GDUSA Digital Design Awards Showcase
What do you call a design competition held at a moment of economic and technological and geopolitical uncertainty juxtaposed against a truly severe winter? We call it an unequivocal success. The 26th American Digital Design Awards™ drew a near record number of entries, resulting in an exceptionally selective showcase of winners. Formerly known as ‘web design,’ the competition continues to evolve — social, email, video, digital ads and pubs, apps — reflecting the power of design to shape and amplify online experiences. Join us for a display of talent, strategy and resilience.