In the context of the digitalization of the educational environment and the expansion of the visual culture of modern society, the importance of developing students' ability to intelligently perceive and create visual information is increasing. Visual design is considered as an important component of art education, contributing to the development of imaginative thinking, compositional vision and visual communication skills. The modern visual environment places new demands on students related to the need to navigate the variety of visual messages, critically evaluate their content and independently create visual images adequate to communicative tasks. The purpose of the research is to theoretically substantiate and pedagogically comprehend visual design as a component of modern art education for schoolchildren, as well as to determine its educational potential in the development of students' creative and cognitive abilities. In the context of updating the content of general education, the search for pedagogical tools that contribute to the formation of visual literacy and the development of students' project thinking is particularly relevant. The paper uses methods of theoretical analysis of psychological, pedagogical and art pedagogical literature, generalization of pedagogical experience, observation of educational activities of schoolchildren and comparative analysis of the results of artistic and design activities. The complex application of these methods made it possible to identify the features of the formation of visual and communicative skills and to determine the pedagogical conditions for their effective development. The results of the study show that the inclusion of visual design elements in the educational process contributes to the development of compositional thinking, the formation of visual information structuring skills, increased cognitive activity and independence of students, as well as the formation of their ability to make informed artistic choices. It is noted that students demonstrate a higher level of visual decision-making and willingness to apply acquired skills in various educational and everyday situations. The practical significance of the research lies in the possibility of using the proposed approaches in the development of visual arts curricula, the integration of project forms of work into art education and the improvement of methods for the formation of visual culture of schoolchildren. The results of the research can be used in the modernization of the content of art education and the development of interdisciplinary educational practices focused on the development of visual literacy of students.