Career Engagement: Art & Design
College & Graduate School of Art graduates are uniquely innovative, entrepreneurial, and engaged, and they find rewarding careers that match their vast ambitions. Many of our studio art alumni exhibit widely, across the country and around the world, while others work as arts educators or administrators in a variety of roles. Our design alumni also pursue varied industry niches, including UI/UX, art direction, exhibition design, editorial illustration, and fashion design. Students have also successfully leveraged their Sam Fox School experience to pursue other career pathways, including business, law, medicine, public health, publishing, and writing.
The WashU Center for Career Engagement plays an important role in that success, offering Sam Fox School students one-on-one career coaching and specialized programs to pursue their professional interests.
Students who are interested in learning more about careers in art and design are encouraged to join the Arts, Design & Media Career Community. By joining this community, students will gain exposure to the professional practices of artists, designers, architects, writers, and practitioners working in a multitude of contexts and industry niches.
How to Work with the Center for Career Engagement
One-on-one career coaching helps students crystallize their interests and guides them on how to structure the search. In the process, students will identify and develop the tools to effectively target prospects—whether for an internship, job, residency, fellowship, graduate school, or other professional opportunity. Students may also schedule a 1:1 mock interview anytime throughout the year. Schedule an appointment to connect with a career coach.
These seminars are designed to provide a foundation for students to confidently pursue professional, transitional, and further academic opportunities.
For Design Majors: The seminar is offered to juniors and seniors in fashion design and communication design. The nine-week program includes sessions on the development of résumé, cover letter, online presence, and portfolio, as well as skill-building sessions focused on networking, interviewing, social media, and professional etiquette. Contact Jen Logan Meyer for details.
For Studio Art Majors: In partnership with faculty, professional practices sessions are integrated into the required curriculum for all juniors and seniors in art. Skills, materials, and learning outcomes from the course support both a studio practice and beyond, and can be leveraged into any number of career paths, fields, and industries.
Stay connected with us beyond graduation and keep us in mind as a resource for you at all stages of your career. Learn more about career resources for alumni like WashU CNX, the university’s official online networking platform where alumni and current students share experiences and expertise, ask questions and find answers, and help each other grow.
Bear Treks
Bear Treks are your opportunity to meet with organizations across the country. These trips focus on a city and an industry and are open to all WashU students. During the trip, you will have the opportunity to meet WashU alumni working and living in the city, as well as tour and meet with select organizations.
We offer virtual and in-person Bear Trek opportunities, and some recent destinations include:
- Los Angeles (Fashion, with visits to 24 Seven, Chanel, Fred Segal, Guess, and Hybrid Apparel)
- New York (Fashion; Art Direction + Design, with visits to 1stAveMachine, 2x4, Moment, Saatchi & Saatchi, 72andSunny, and Verizon)
- Chicago (Art Design & Direction, with visits to Studio Blue, Morningstar, Thirst, Wright Action House, Greater Good Design, and VSA; Artists, Arts Organizations, & Cultural Institutions, with visits to the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Richard Gray Gallery, Rebuild Foundation, studio of alum Ginny Sykes, Smart Museum of Art, and Metal Magic Fabricators)
- Silicon Valley (Art Direction + Design, with visits to IDEO, Method, frog, Pinterest, Levi Strauss & Co., YouTube/Google, Facebook, and DreamWorks Animation)
Job and Internship Placements
A small selection of recent job and internship placements for our current students and recent graduates is listed below. You can also check out career outcomes for our undergraduate students on the WashU Center for Career Engagement’s Career Outcome webpage. In addition to these landings, our students often go on to graduate programs in art and design at prestigious universities across the country.
72andSunny
American Museum of Natural History
The Atlantic
Atomicdust
Digitas
Edward Jones
Facebook
FCB Chicago
Fleishman-Hillard
Franklyn
frog
Glamour magazine
Google
Grand Studio
Guggenheim Museum
HarperCollins Publishers
IBM Design
IDEO
J. Crew web design
Medium
New York Magazine
Nickelodeon Animation Studio
Ogilvy & Mather
Penguin Group
Pentagram
PwC Digital
Saatchi & Saatchi Wellness
Shutterfly
Smart Design
TOKY Branding + Design
Walt Disney Imagineering
YouTube
Coach
Diane von Furstenberg
Entireworld
E.S. Originals
Hearst Digital Media
Isaac Mizrahi
Kate Spade
Launch
Levi Strauss & Co.
Oscar Carvallo Paris
Ralph Lauren
Sachin & Babi
SUMMERSALT
Theory
Tommy Hilfiger
Tory Burch
Artist assistant to Tara Donovan
BBD
CMT Group
Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis
Drive Social Media St. Louis
Formulate
Kukje Gallery
Laumeier Sculpture Park
National Gallery of Art
National Portrait Gallery
Octavia
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Princeton University Press
Quad/Graphics
Right Start
Starry Kitchen
Third Degree Glass Factory
Two Twelve
1stAveMachine
20th Century FOX
American Museum of Natural History
Cheree Berry Paper
Digitas
Disney ABC Television Group
Interbrand
Kate Spade
Mozilla
Pentagram
Pixar Animation Studios
Shedd Aquarium
Studio Blue
3.1 Phillip Lim
Calvin Klein
Derek Lam
Georgio Armani
J.Crew
Nanette Lepore
Nylon magazine
Vera Wang
ASIG Productions
Gagosian Gallery
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art
Pace Prints
Peggy Guggenheim Collection
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Regional Arts Commission
Rob Voerman Studios (Holland)
Saint Louis Art Museum
Six Mile Sculpture Works
Whitney Museum of American Art
Alumni Spotlights
Check out our series of profiles of outstanding alumni. They share what they’re currently working on, their advice for current students, and the projects they’re most proud of so far.
