The Visiting Artist Program is an on-going lecture series that brings distinguished designers together with students, faculty, and design professionals in a public forum. The program was established in 2001 by Assisting Professor Rocco Piscatello representing the Department of Communication Design at FIT. Rocco is also Principal of Piscatello Design Centre.

Scheduled for September 16, 2001, the first planned lecture with Richard Poulin was cancelled due to the tragic events of September 11. One month later, on October 16, David Carson launched the program as the first speaker. Since then, the program has hosted many illustrious speakers, including: Milton Glaser, Louise Fili, Gail Anderson, Chip Kidd, Ed Benguiat, Jessica Helfand, Willi Kunz, Philippe Apeloig, Ivan Chermayeff, and Michael Bierut. And this coming spring, the program is happy to welcome Stefan Sagmeister.

2006 marked the 5 year anniversary of the program, and was celebrated with a lecture by design legend Massimo Vignelli, in conjunction with an exhibition of the award-winning poster series designed for the program. Another celebration is currently being planned for the 10 year anniversary in 2011.

All the lectures have been free and open to the general public.