R.E.M. Ephemera, Athens and Archives Last Year, I added eight newly researched and documented items from the University of Georgia Special Collections Libraries to the People’s Graphic Design Archive (PGDA), a crowd-sourced digital repository dedicated to preserving and expanding access to graphic design history. These contributions build on my earlier work as a UGA Special…
This spring, we wrapped up Advanced Typography with a final review of student publication designs. For this project, students explored typography as both a tool for communication and a visual element by creating two-sided flipped, or tête-bêche booklets that interpret a single text in two distinct ways: one more refined and editorial, the other experimental and…
Design of the Mundane: Bad “design” wastes time. Last summer, I found myself at the DMV trying to get a state ID for my kid, who needed it for travel. Naturally, I was prepared: I had completed the online application portion ahead of time, and printed and organized all the required paperwork. We waited in…
Last spring my colleague Moon Jang and I co-taught ARGD 4030, Advanced Typography, each designing a complementary half of the course. Moon’s portion focused on letterforms (micro) through the design of a partial custom typeface while my part focused on typesetting and design of larger bodies of text (macro).
This past May I spent time perusing UGA’s (extensive) Special Collections Library archives through the Special Collections Faculty Fellowship, which provides support for the development of archives–centered pedagogy. Along with five other faculty from various disciplines, we planned student activities and archives interactions for our courses. Topics ranged from disaster preparedness to investigative reporting to…
Last year I was part of an informal faculty group interested in learning more about alternative assessment models. We consulted various resources but started with the book, Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning then we redesigned our fall 2021 course(s) to integrate non-traditional assessment models such as labor-based, opt-in, or speculative grading. For ARGD 3060 Type & Image, a junior-level…
Well, there ya go, over a year has passed since I last posted, and little has changed. Seems like that time just fell into a black hole. To sum up last year: mandated to teach hybrid with no technological support. Exhausting. This year: back to normal with zero health and safety measures: no masks, no…
Even before covid-19 sent us all ‘pivoting’ to online we had a fairly new typography course for non-majors approved to have a dedicated online format. I ended up teaching the course, ARGD 2030e Introduction to Typography in Visual Communication, during the summer term. It was both a new course preparation/design as well as the challenge of learning…
This spring I taught our Graphic Design Senior Capstone course in which senior design majors focused their efforts on issues related to local food systems, food sustainability and insecurity. Of course, when we parted for spring break we didn’t know that we wouldn’t see each other again except online, and that these graduating seniors wouldn’t…
I was fortunate this semester to co-teach a large class of Advanced Typography with my colleague, Eileen Wallace, who specializes in book arts and letterpress. The term culminated in the printing of a collaborative broadside that contained a custom designed letterform or numeral from each student (plus one from each of us to cover A–Z…