Bachelor of Design in Advertising
Toronto, Canada
Bachelor's degree
DURATION
4 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
EARLIEST START DATE
TUITION FEES
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
Key Summary
About: OCAD University's Bachelor of Design in Advertising teaches storytelling from varied perspectives and challenges tradition. You’ll study studio-based, cross-disciplinary design, hear guest speakers from major Canadian agencies, complete internships, and in fourth-year boot camps create real campaigns for clients like McCain Pizza Pockets and Sony PlayStation.
Career Outcomes: More than half of fourth-year students secure jobs before graduation; many of Canada’s top advertising creatives are OCAD U alumni. Careers can include advertising agencies, in‑house marketing, digital agencies, design firms, production and film studios, plus freelance roles such as copywriter, art director, brand strategist, media planner, content creator, and internships.
Advertising
In OCAD U’s Advertising program, you will learn storytelling from many different points of view and be encouraged to challenge tradition. You’ll benefit from guest speakers from Canada’s biggest ad agencies and have opportunities to do internships.
In your fourth year, you’ll work in boot camps with real clients and create real campaigns; in the past, students have worked with McCain Pizza Pockets and Sony PlayStation. This means you can say you’ve sold a creative concept before even finishing school – a huge advantage when you’re looking for a job.
What You’ll Do in the Program
First Year
In the first year, you’ll take intro to advertising courses and a good base of art and design classes including:
- Typography
- Drawing
- Colour and two-dimensional design
- Writing
- Design history
Second Year
In the second year, you’ll learn the advertising strategy and concept. You’ll also take:
- Digital advertising design
- Typography
- Photography
- Your choice of classes in English, social sciences or humanities
Third Year
The third year features your choice of art classes and:
- Advertising concepts
- Advertising research
- Art of persuasion
- Advertising storytelling
- Advertising copywriting
- Retail advertising and user experience
- Your choice of classes in English, social sciences or humanities
Fourth Year
- In the fourth year, you’ll work with real clients in advertising boot camp. You will create real campaigns from scratch and present it to clients such as McCain or Sony. You’ll also work on your thesis project and showcase your work at OCAD U’s GradEx, the biggest free art and design exhibition in Toronto with over 40,000 visitors.
More than half of the fourth year students have jobs lined up before they even graduate. Many of Canada’s top advertising creatives are graduates of OCAD U’s program.
- Advertising agencies and marketing firms
- In-house marketing for companies
- Digital agencies
- Design companies
- Production and film studios
Co-ops/Internships
OCAD U offers so much more than co-ops because creative careers take many forms. Our approach is specialized and individual to every student’s needs and goals. You will be able to take advantage of:
- Short experiential learning placements from among hundreds of organizations
- Creative in-class projects with real-world industry partners
- Exclusive summer internships
- Gallery exhibitions of your work
- Freelance creative opportunities
- Jobs after graduation
OCAD University’s dedicated support services will help you build a professional community, valuable experience and skills necessary for a meaningful career.