The author refers to the analysis of the phenomenon of "project activity" and its capabilities in the development of professional competencies of future professional designers. Particular attention is drawn to the possibility of project activities in the development of composite project thinking of students. The compositional skill gives the designer some artistic specificity and helps to shape and improve the compositional thinking and professional competence. The development of professional and personal qualities of future designers cannot occur in isolation from the process of forming his/ her overall culture, initiation to the culture and traditions of the professional community. This pairing is possible through the studied disciplines, through a system of special crea-tive design tasks, allowing to consolidate professional skills, to provide a connection between theory and practice, to relate the targets of professional designers’ activities with the life and problems of people around them. Solving these problems is possible through the project work of students, performance of design projects of significant social orientation, which is reflected not only in the themes of the performed tasks, but also in their content, orientation to solving important social problems, the organization of collective creative project activities. As one of the effective means of project activities, the author characterizes clausura and its influence on the development of composite thinking of students-designers.