Digital Design
DIPLOMA | 12 MONTHS | FULL TIME | ON CAMPUS
OPTIONAL HYBRID LEARNING MODEL
Learn to apply your artistic vision across web, mobile, and tablet experiences – from interactive design to motion design – in a studio-focused,
agency-style curriculum built around real clients, briefs, and portfolio outcomes.
Program Overview
Build a foundation in UX, interface design, branding, motion, HTML/CSS, and production tools, while specializing in Interactive Design (UX/design thinking) or Motion Design (digital storytelling) and building a graduate portfolio project.
Duration:
12 months (6 terms, full-time)
Location:
Vancouver, Canada (Campus)
Credential:
Diploma, Digital Design
Grad Deliverable:
Polished graduate project featuring client work
Specializations:
Interactive Design / Motion Design
Core Tools:
Adobe tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, After Effects, Premiere), HTML/CSS, 3D fundamentals
What You’ll Graduate With:
A powerful, multi-piece production portfolio that you can use for job applications to studios worldwide or to start as an entrepreneur.
Start Dates:
Multiple intakes per year
Tuition:
Domestic students: C$27,950
International students: C$43,000
Career Paths:
UX/UI Designer, Interaction/Interface Designer, Information Architect, Digital Designer, Motion-focused roles, Motion Designer/Motion Graphics Designer, Broadcast/Title Design, Compositing/Motion Generalist, Cross-discipline/Agency roles, Brand/Visual Designer, Junior Art Director, Digital Project/Creative team roles
START YOUR TRAINING
Program Specializations
Master Your Creative Design Skill Set in Your Field of Interest
In the second half of the program, choose your specialization while completing your Graduate Project and building portfolio pieces aligned to the type of design you’re most interested in.
Focus on user-centered thinking, prototyping, testing, iteration, and interaction techniques for modern interfaces:
- Design Thinking (methods/tools for user-first design)
- Venture Studio Intensive (evaluating projects through sustainability/viability lenses)
- Studio Accelerator (prototype à test à iterate in Agile; “Designing for Thumbs” and Minimal Attention UIs)
- Optional electives: Persuasive Design, Advanced JavaScript & APIs, Development Prototypes, Info Architecture for Apps
Focus on story, metaphor, art direction, and motion craft. Advanced production and compositing workflows:
- Motion Imagineering Intensive (concept/story and style frames for grad project)
- Compositing and Motion Integration (match moving, rotoscoping, image-based lighting – generalist VFX overview)
- Optional electives: Motion Title Sequence, Dynamics and MoGraph in C4D
Explore Student Portfolios
While training at VFS, students are immersed in the Digital Design industry, and spend a lot of hands-on time creating professional-quality work. And, nothing is a greater testament to the incomparable industry resources and career preparation that define VFS’s education model, than the top quality work our students produce. Here, a portfolio of outstanding work is just the beginning. Just take a look.
Mr Owen Goes To Mars
Created by Lawrence Teng
Mustash Case Study
Created by Rajeshwari Keluskar
The Path
Created by Ignacio Osorio
What You’ll Learn
- Define user experience for a brief (workshop/lecture model)
- Wayfinding, affordances, icon design process
- Visual hierarchy, positioning, decisions tied to business, and audience needs
- Develop concept, messaging, and visual language for media projects
- Explore multiple approaches to creative direction (experimental amd iterative)
- Photoshop fundamentals: retouching, color correction, layers, masks, non-destructive workflows
- Illustrator and InDesign: vector manipulation, publishing media, interactive outputs, infographics with “big data” thinking
- Pre-production à production à post
- Stop motion narrative and workflow through Premiere and After Effects
- Masks, effects, animation basics, cross-tool integration
- HTML + CSS foundations
- DOM + CSS Box Model
- Communicating content structure and visual representation
- Photoshop and Maya foundations
- Game-ready assets and art workflows
- High-to-low pipeline
- Substance Painter and texturing fundamentals
- Asset integration into Unity and Unreal
- Team dynamics, communication, time management
- Traditional PM lifecycle and knowledge areas (scope/time/cost/quality/risk, etc.)
- Presentation skills and networking
- Industry context and recruiter expectations
- Term 4 strategy, pitching, and peer review
- Term 5 development to industry level, with feedback from department head and industry mentors
- Term 6 portfolio packaging, professional profile, and business/law/ethics
START YOUR TRAINING
Career Outcomes After Graduation
VFS’s signature, hands-on training starts from day 1. By the time you graduate, you’ll have developed an industry-ready skill set that will prepare you for a variety of careers:
- UX/UI Designer
- Interaction/Interface Designer
- Information Architect
- Digital Designer
- Motion-focused roles
- Motion Designer/Motion Graphics Designer
- Broadcast/Title Design
- Compositing/Motion Generalist
- Cross-discipline/Agency roles
- Brand/Visual Designer
- Junior Art Director
- Digital Project/Creative team roles
Faculty
VFS’s Faculty consists of the most highly trained professionals in the creative industries. While our full-time instructors provide more one-on-one time with students than any other school, our part-time instructors are pulled right from the heart of the industry, equipped with the most current, relevant industry experience and credits.
Course Content
- Board Career Opportunities
- Presentation Skills
- Project Management: Team Dynamics
- User Experience and UCD Innovation
- Creative and Art Direction
- Photoshop
- Interface Principles
- Stop Motion and Post-Production Fundamentals
- HTML and CSS
Outcome: Pitch and present ideas, work in teams, define UX for a brief, build clean interface logic (hierarchy/affordances), produce digital images in Photoshop, create a basic motion piece workflow, and understand web structure (HTML/CSS).
- Brand Strategy
- Typography
- Illustrator and InDesign
- Motion Broadcast Design
- Emerging Ideas
- 3D Fundamentals
- Interface Design
- Information Architecture for Web
- Elective: JavaScript and JQuery
Outcome: Build brand strategy foundations, apply typography rules, produce vector and layout work (infographics), create higher-production motion content, understand 3D workflows, and apply IA and interaction/visual interface thinking for cross-screen projects.
- Industry IQ
- Traditional PM Methodologies
- Theoretical Approaches
- What’s the Big Idea?
- Branding and Identities
- Electives: IA for Apps, Experimental Practices in Motion Design
Outcome: Operate in a professional design context: manage projects with PM frameworks, form a design manifesto to guide grad project ideation, and deliver a multi-channel campaign for a real non-profit client (team-based), while building full brand identities and standards.
- Graduate Project Strategy
- Interactive Design: Design Thinking, Venture Studio Intensive (Electives: Persuasive Design, Advanced JavaScript & APIs)
- Motion Design: Motion Imagineering Intensive (Electives: Motion Title Sequence, Dynamics, MoGraph in C4D)
- Electives: Graphic Design on Trend, Advanced Communication Design
Outcome: Define your career direction and plan your Graduate Project with structured pitch materials, while deepening either interactive problem-solving or motion storytelling craft.
- Graduate Project Development
- Interactive Design: Studio Accelerator (Elective: Development Prototypes)
- Motion Design: Compositing and Motion Integration
- Elective: Packaging Design
Outcome: Execute and polish a large, technically complex capstone aligned to your career goals, working through feedback loops from internal leaders and external/industry input.
- Building Your Professional Profile
- Business, Law, and Ethics
- Developing Personal Brands and Portfolios
Outcome: Graduate with a finished portfolio/personal identity system, job-ready professional materials (resume/cover letter/interview readiness), and practical industry understanding (freelance vs studio, contracts/copyright/ethics).
SPEAK WITH A VFS ADVISOR TODAY
Program Delivery
ON-CAMPUS
Our 1 year, fully in-person production-based experience, preparing you for the industry’s current practices and technologies.
VFS’s Digital Design Production Centre is located at 400 West Hastings St. in Vancouver, BC, Canada. Our state-of-the-art facilities include a 64,000 cubic ft. motion capture volume, PC labs with industry software, and much more.
HYBRID
Access our Digital Design program through a combination of online & on-campus learning. Curriculum is divided into three modules, with select modules available entirely online OR on campus.
Portfolio Outcomes
Your Portfolio by Graduation
Featuring a team-produced, cross channel campaign for a real client and a capstone Graduate Project, you’ll graduate with a specialized portfolio of design work. Everything is built through an agency-style loop: brief à concept à production à critique à iteration à polish.
Admissions
VFS Advisors are here to answer any questions about the applications process, help you book a tour, or set you up for a free portfolio review with our industry faculty.
For more about language requirements and other information for international students, visit the International Students page.
Tuition
On-Campus Delivery
Domestic: $27,950 CAD
International: $43,000 CAD
Start Dates: Aug. 31
- A portfolio of your digital & visual work that demonstrates your familiarity with a range of visual work (i.e., photography, illustration, interior design, merchandising, etc.), OR
- Completion of VFS’s Foundation Visual Art & Design program
Hybrid Delivery
Tuition is broken down by individual modules and differs for on-campus and online learning.
Graphic Design Fundamentals
On-Campus | 2 Months
Domestic: $4,658 CAD
International: $7,166 CAD
Online | 3 Months
Domestic: $2,500 CAD
International: $3,500 CAD
- A portfolio of your digital & visual work that demonstrates your familiarity with a range of visual work (i.e., photography, illustration, interior design, merchandising, etc.), OR
- Completion of VFS’s Foundation Visual Art & Design program
Production Centre
On-Campus | 6 Months
Domestic: $13,975 CAD
International: $21,500 CAD
- Completion of Graphic Design Fundamentals OR
- Proven graphic design experience (layout design & image compositing) in industry software (Photoshop, Illustrator, Figma, After Effects)
Grad Project Studio
On-Campus | 4 Months
Domestic: $9,317 CAD
International: $14,334 CAD
Online | 4 Months
Domestic: $7,475 CAD
International: $10,500 CAD
- Completion of Production Centre OR
- A certificate/diploma in UX/UI or Motion Design from an accredited school/program
Program FAQ
In the second half of the year (Terms 4-6), you specialize in either Interactive Design or Motion Design.
It’s the single largest portfolio asset in the program. The project is planned in Term 4 (strategy/pitch) and built in Term 5 (development) with feedback and mentorship, then packaged for employment in Term 6.
Yes. UX + UCD Innovation, Interface Principles, Interface Design, and Information Architecture courses run through the core (with advanced interactive specialization options later).
Yes. Stop Motion and Post-Production Fundamentals, Motion Broadcast Design, Emerging Ideas, and motion specialization options (including compositing) support motion storytelling development.
You learn HTML and CSS in Term 1, with optional JavaScript/JQuery and advanced JS/API electives later (especially helpful for interactive prototyping).
Yes. Team Dynamics (Term 1) and Traditional PM Methodologies (Term 3), plus Agile methods in the Interactive Studio Accelerator.
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