A video of my presentation “Singing the Surface,” is available at the VCFA MFA in Graphic Design YouTube channel. The talk was part of my 2016 visit as guest critic, lecturer and workshop leader for the April residency, and had been previously given at Kookmin University in Seoul, and Phoenix Design Week. An adaptation (with different graphics) was published earlier this year in Print magazine.
In August 2015, I’ll be traveling to Japan to teach a 5-day summer course at the University of Kitakyushu. Old Dominion University takes part in an annual exchange program where faculty submit proposals for a course they would offer on some aspect of American (U.S.) culture. My proposal, “Way Out West: American Graphic Design 1776–now” was selected and the course will take place August 25–September 1.
My essay “Fuck All” is included in the journal Modes of Criticism 1 – Critical, Uncritical, Post-critical, the initial publication of the Modes of Criticism project of editor Francisco Laranjo. The essay is a response of Michael Rock’s essay “Fuck Content,” and challenges that article’s notion that graphic design history is one of form, not content. You can read the introductory paragraphs here, and order a copy here.
I am co-organizer of the AIGA Design Education conference Blunt: Explicit and Graphic Design Criticism Now, to be held at Old Dominion University April 12–14, 2013. My co-conspirators David Cabianca, Jiwon Lee, and Jason Tselentis. The conference’s focus is on criticism and critical writing in and about graphic design. Presentations will be in the areas of Practice and Theory, History, Writing, and Education, with keynote speeches by Rick Poynor, Michele Champagne, and David Stairs. Plus panels, roundtables, workshops, and fun for the whole family. And an exhibition, Mount, that features graphic design artifacts from my personal collection. Information about the conference can be found here.