Citizen Designer is a continuing education course I teach at the School of Visual Arts. As a designer, I reached a point where I’m able to selectively work on projects I believe in. I wanted to base a course on this idea, where students work on assignments that have to do with things they care [...]
Fences are everywhere in NYC. Walking by so many every day, it occurred to me that they could be used as a canvas to display something positive. This, and my love of cross stitch, turned into a project for my spring 2011 type class! It involves the grid, type, colored tape, and fences in the [...]
After watching the movie Helvetica (everyone should see this, non-designers included), the task for students was to render a word using organic, unexpected materials. Use any weight of Helvetica, create a stencil/guide, and begin. The challenge, to successfully marry the method of execution of the word, with the word itself. To think Conceptually, not literally. [...]
This spring, my freshman Visual Language II (a course in color theory) students rocked it with their interpretations of Johannes Itten’s color star. The assignment, to include the 12 highest saturated colors of the color wheel, then saturating and desaturating these colors to achieve lighter and darker levels of hue. Total number of colors to [...]
I teach a course at the School of Visual Arts called ‘What’s Your Type‘. Each semester, the caliber of students gets better and better. What i love about the course is that it’s open to all majors, so the variety of disciplines includes photography, film, illustration, sculpture, cartooning, advertising and graphic design. Students register for [...]
This fall I am teaching ‘Designer as Citizen’, a course which explores our role as responsible designers. The course was featured in an article as one of ‘five courses for a new era‘. Thanks Time Out NY! Time Out NY article for the full story.
I just finished a week-long workshop with Sarah Soskolne from Hoefler & Frere-Jones about typeface design. it was AMAZING! Offered by SVA continuing education. I’ve highlighted important nuggets of info and included links to references that were mentioned. Day 1 On the first day Sarah did a presentation on the history of type up to [...]
I found one! An example of Peter Bilak’s History typeface in use (Intermix, Park Ave and 79th). Why was this even on my mind? A couple of weeks ago the students from my whats your type class at the school of visual arts were assigned a typeface to research. These included: History, Archer, Gotham, Mr. [...]
I’m thoroughly enjoying teaching ‘What’s Your Type?’ an experimental typography course I developed. Students are constantly asked to think about type in context; as it relates to its environment, how does its meaning change? Last semester we played around with the idea of edible typography in motion. Steve Smith was the mastermind behind the project, [...]
I just received scholarship applications in the mail for 89 students (yikes!). Three months ago SVA contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in being a part of the review committee for their MFA scholarship. YES. I always say yes. Not only because I was a recipient of this very same scholarship when I [...]
Teaching graphic design is something I love. I get to share my knowledge with other designers, get inspiration from them, be present (at least for the length of class), and feel like I’m making a difference (hopefully) in someone’s life. As I suddenly find myself teaching five classes at two institutions (School of Visual Arts [...]