About

Whether you are a large cultural institution, an energetic business startup, something in between or a student in my class, I bring a rich mix of experience and perspective to our conversation. My resume reflects the texture of a career combining teaching (at all levels from Kindergarten workshops to Graduate School Philosophies of Art classes) with marketing, management and entrepreneurial skills.

My guiding principle, as a teacher, as a designer, and as an individual, has been that we learn by making critical connections and finding surprising relationships. These may be between new and old information or between seemingly unrelated subjects or objects. If I have done a great job as a teacher, my students are learning to do this so they can do it on their own. It becomes a new way of looking at everything. We are role models and we are teaching yet one more approach to problem solving in the design studio, and appreciation of great solutions in our study of design history.

An effective teacher convinces students that he or she has something the student wants or needs. Sometimes that takes place early in the relationship, or midstream or long after they have parted. I believe that everyone starts out wanting to learn. An effective teacher keeps that spark alive. My design classroom is a lot like a functioning design studio or design department. Students’ assignments will be in the form of problems to solve and will usually start with a brief case study. We will do some of these assignments as a whole class, allowing students to “crowdsource” the information gathering and brainstorming phases on a small scale, as a group, but produce the final piece of work alone. The range of individual solutions to a common
problem will open up interesting discussions and critiques. With some practice, students will be able to manage the process without the group, each with a separate assignment. Each student will present their work, with the rest of the group taking the role of client.

I have often been asked to explain the difference between graphic design and other visual arts disciplines, such as painting, drawing and photography. They share many qualities but graphic designers have to be able to communicate a message that is not their own. It may be for a corporation, a political party, a greeting card or the branding that will drive web and package design. Everything students have learned about elements of art and principles of design will be called upon, but with different objectives than in previous classes.

In today’s world we are surrounded by software, templates and formats – all developed to make things look “designed.” A good graphic designer learns early that designing is thinking, reading, arranging and creating but it is not all just about how things look, it is about communicating. The exact medium for communicating is probably changing while you are reading this and designers need to learn the principles that guide digital projects as well as printed ones.

The designer is the problem solver who asks key questions, listens to every nuance and assembles enough information to use design tools to craft a solution. The well-trained and talented designer does this with enough insight, discipline and mastery of skills to create a final product that makes its form inseparable from function. Our study of design history will take students through movements, styles and challenges. I will always remember the impact of the design idols when I was just out of college---Milton Glaser, Massimo Vignelli, Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Pentagram, and the game-changing names that joined them over the years like Chip
Kidd and Tibor Kalman.

Many examples of iconic graphic design dazzle us with their appearance of simplicity, looking almost obvious, since the complexity of the designer’s role and ability to distill such complex concepts is well hidden. No surprise that, like architects, we don’t “adorn” our work with our own logos as we might if we were fashion, accessory or product designers.

I want my students to learn how much responsibility will be placed in their hands and how much power they will have to improve the effectiveness and aesthetics or communication and the visual world, from subway maps and signs to book covers and those fashion designers’ logos. What an exciting way for an art student to find a satisfying career.