design history – Design Incubation

New Director of Peer Reviews, Chair and Director at Large

Welcoming Cat Normoyle, incoming Director of Peer Reviews, and Camila Afanador Llach as Chair, Director-at-Large

This 2024 academic year has been busy and productive at Design Incubation. We have had many activities this fall, including the Design Educators Awards, currently accepting nominations and entries until December 31, 2024. In October, we had our first fully in-person colloquium since the onset of the pandemic and our largest one to date at Boston University with four sessions and more than 20 research presentations. This year, we celebrate our 10th year with new members and ongoing development. We continue to host the series, Design Your Research Agenda (DYRA), the latest one in November. We will be publishing this episode online shortly.

Starting this September 2024, we welcomed Cat Normoyle, Associate Professor at East Carolina University as the incoming Director of Peer Review. In spring 2025 she will be taking over this role from Camila Afanador-Llach, Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University, who has held the position since fall 2021.

Normoyle is a designer, writer, and educator whose research and creative activities focus on community engagement, interactive and immersive experiences, and design pedagogy. She has a strong record of contributions to design scholarship and community engagement, evidenced by publications, presentations, and grants. Notably her writing appears in articles and book chapters published by AIGA Dialectic, Design Research Society, AIGA Design Educators Community, Routledge, and others. She is a recent grant recipient of the Engagement Scholarship Consortium for her work on the project, Our Story: The LGBTQ Stories of Eastern North Carolina, which is preparing for a fall 2025 exhibition of work. She is currently working on a book project, “Community-based Practices in Action.” We are excited to welcome her as the new Director of Peer Reviews at DI.

Afanador-Llach has made tremendous contributions to the peer review process at DI over the last 3 years. She has further developed the peer review process, ensuring the double-blind process is objective, anonymous, rigorous, and fair and that it offers the benefits of the peer review to our members by offering feedback to all who have participated in our colloquium submission process.

Afanador-Llach will be staying on as a Chair and Director-at-Large as she segues into other DI initiatives. We would like to thank her for her three years of service as Director of Peer Review and we are excited to be working with her in new capacities.

Afanador-Llach was promoted to tenured Associate Professor at Florida Atlantic University, and is currently researching and writing about the history of graphic design in her home country Colombia. She recently completed a three-year NEH-funded project cataloging and translating metadata, developing an online resource. With her experience with metadata and from her role as DI Director of Peer Review, we hope to further the development of keyword analysis and implementation at DI.

Designing Your Research Agenda (DYRA) 4.1

Design scholars and researchers discuss various aspects of their research agendas

Friday, November 8, 2024
1:00pPM Eastern / 12:00PM Central
Virtual Event

Designing Your Research Agenda is a panel discussion and open forum for design scholars and researchers to discuss various aspects of their research agendas. We aim to open a dialog regarding multiple challenges of discovering one’s design research inquiry. Designing Your Research Agenda is an ongoing design research event series.

Jason Alejandro (The College of New Jersey)
Yoon Soo Lee (University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth)
D.J. Trischler (University of Cincinnati)

Some of the questions we will discuss with panelists include:

How did you determine your research agenda (high-level timeline of your career/trajectory)
How do you define research and why do you think it matters/for society, the field, and yourself?
How do your department and institution define and support the work you do?
How would you describe/categorize your department and institution?
If you were going to position your work within a category, would you say your research addresses: design theory, design history, design practice, design research (traditional graphic design, speculative design, UXUI, typography, AR, VR, creative computing, design solutions, etc.), design pedagogy, or something else?
What barriers (if any) exist at your institution or in the field for creating and disseminating your research?

Moderators

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Biographies

Jason Alejandro is a Puerto Rican graphic designer and Associate Professor of Graphic Design at The College of New Jersey. His academic research explores intersections of cultural identity, design history, and critical pedagogy, with a focus on how these topics shape visual communication. Alejandro is particularly interested in using graphic design to address social and cultural narratives, including underrepresented communities in design education. His work spans writing, publishing, and visual projects, including contributions to both academic and professional design discussions on identity and collaboration in design practice. He is horrified at how well ChatGPT generated this bio, even if it is somewhat generic.

Yoon Soo Lee is a Professor of Art and Design. She has been teaching at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2001, and also at Vermont College of Fine Arts since 2011.

Yoon Soo’s practice moves around three core areas of study: the art of pedagogy, how to work in dialogue cross-discipline, and how to create art and design that is based on self-knowledge. These investigations have led to presentations at the AIGA Educators Conference, UCDA Design Educators Conference, grants from the National Institute of Health, presentations at the Cognitive Science Society and papers such as “Functional Criticism in the Graphic Design Classroom” published in “Design Principles and Practices: An International Journal”.

Yoon Soo studied at Seoul National University where she received her BFA and MFA, and she also studied at Western Michigan University where she received her second MFA in graphic design.

D.J. Trischler is an Assistant Professor of Communication Design for the University of Cincinnati’s Ullman School of Design in the College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning. He teaches typography, design research methods, and an introduction to design lecture. His research addresses the “dis-placed” sentiments familiar to the contemporary human experience, experimenting with possibilities to use design to “place” people in their surrounding ecologies. Through his research, he aims to increase place attachment, a sense of community and belonging, grow neighborliness and community engagement, and ultimately strengthen quality of life and well-being. D.J.’s work in this niche originated from his graduate thesis research into Neighborhood-Centered Design.

Design + History Methodology Slam

Four Graphic Design History Methodologies for historical research— formal analysis, biography, fiction writing, and data visualization.

Brockett Horne
Lecturer
Boston University

Recently, graphic design practitioners have urgently taken up the project of history-telling. Designers are committed to transforming the limited, exclusive narratives of graphic design history that we have inherited through a variety of methods to likewise define more inclusive spaces within the practice of graphic design. Yet Graphic Design History researchers rarely debate or articulate their methodologies for producing historical research. We speak of what’s missing from history, but methodologies are not discussed.

Unlike fields like Art History, American Studies and other spaces in the Social Sciences, where reflection on methodology is prevalent, designers lack a space to reflect upon HOW historical research is conducted. For other fields, books such as Anne D’Alleva’s Methods & Theories of Art History or Serie McDougal’s Research Methods in Africana Studies are assigned in required coursework about methodology. Even within studio courses in Graphic Design, methodologies such as Design Thinking and User-Centered research are codified and include substantial literature, but they are not prevalent when speaking about how we research history.

This presentation outlines four Graphic Design History Methodologies for historical research— formal analysis, biography, fiction writing, and data visualization. The presentation will especially inform design practitioners without training in history or material culture. Questions that will be addressed include: What cultural, political, gender, and historiographical perspectives shape Graphic Design Historical research? To what extent does Graphic Design History research methodology inadvertently seek information that aligns with prevailing beliefs (see Berry and Walters, The Black Experience in Design) How might present-day attitudes, values, and knowledge influence our interpretation of historical artifacts? And, crucially, how can we navigate these biases to develop more inclusive research practices accessible to all interested in history?

Takeaways:

Explore a lexicon of Design History Methodologies: formal analysis, biography, fiction writing, and data visualization
Assess strengths and limitations of a few design research methodologies
Imagine the future of Design History research

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University on Friday, October 25, 2024.

Design Incubation Colloquium 11.1: Boston University

Friday, October 25, 2024
9:30AM – 2:30PM
Boston University
808 Commonwealth Avenue

Hosted by Mary Yang and Kristen Coogan, College of Fine Art, Boston University. Design Incubation Colloquium is a part of BUGD’s Design Week.

Keynote: YuJune Park

Thursday, October 24, 2024
5:00PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 410

Colloquium 11.1

Friday, October 25 , 2024
9:30AM–2:30PM
808 Commonwealth Ave
Room 409 and 410

9:30AM–10:00AM	Coffee and Refreshments (4th floor lobby) Welcome/opening remarks
10:00AM–11:30AM	Sessions Design + Translation (Room 409) Design + Subversion (Room 410)
11:30AM–1:00PM	Lunch break
1:00PM–2:30PM	Sessions Design + Performance (Room 409) Design + Methodology (Room 410)

MFA Open Studios

Friday, October 25, 2024
5:00PM

Design Incubation Colloquium Sessions

Design + Translation

Moderators: Kelsey Elder & Liz Deluna

The Design + Translation panel aims to recenter perspectives and prioritize inclusivity by representing a wider range of voices that build design community.

Typography as Racialization: Euro-American Craft and Asian Labor
Chris Lee
Associate Professor
Pratt Institute

Visualizing Faculty Salary Inequity: A Study of Salary Compression and Inversion and Its Impact in Higher Education
MiHyun Kim
Associate Professor
Texas State University

Design + Visual Translation and Cultural Bridging
Shuang Wu
Assistant Professor
Virginia Tech

Drawing Water: A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Representing Water Performance
Eugene Park
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Jessica Rossi-Mastracci & Matt Tierney
University of Minnesota

A Sequence of Multiplicity
Moon Jung Jang
Associate Professor
University of Georgia

Kaithi Script’s Revival: An Intersection of Design and Cultural Inheritance
Anmol Shrivastava
Assistant Professor
Illinois State University

Design + Subversion

Moderators: Ash Yuxuan Wei & Dan Wong

The Design + Subversion panel is a space to critique the status quo through forms of intervention, disruption, subversion, and truth-telling.

Drawn Together: Exploring the Intersection of Image-Making and Community-Building
Grace Preston
Lecturer
Texas State University

Advancing Design Practices: Assessing the Impact of New Technologies and Sustainable Innovation
Caitlin Lu & Maidah Salman
Graduate student
Boston University

Designing for Mental Health and Wellbeing: Integrating Mental Health Support into UI/UX Design Course
Ting Zhou
Assistant Professor
University of Connecticut

Exploring Identity through Curatorial Practices: Gráfica Latina
José Menéndez
Assistant Professor
Northeastern University

Tatiana Gómez
Assistant Professor
Massachusetts College of Art and Design

In Search of Feminism and Identity in Asia
Wanjing Li
Designer and Artist
Boston University

Design + Performance

Moderators: Halim Lee & Cat Normoyle

The Design + Performances panel engages the senses through action and experience. It encompasses activities that unite communities and ideas.

Design + Computation + Performance + __________
James Grady
Assistant Professor
Boston University

Sensory and Ambient Interfaces
Jonathan Hanahan
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Accessibility and Creative Authorship in Design Theory Through Multimodal Learning and Metacognitive Reflection
Molly Haig
Adjunct Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences
Berlin, Germany

Dr. Till Julian Huss
Professor
University of Europe for the Applied Sciences

Pedagogical Workshops and Collaboration
Chen Luo
Lecturer
Boston University

Design + Methodology

Moderators: Claire Bula & Camila Afanador Llach

The Design + Methodology panel presents insights on new design tools, systems, and processes found through innovative research frameworks.

User-Centered Design + Generative AI Research Tools: Usability Testing and Implication
Yi-Fan Chen
Assistant Professor
Farmingdale State College

Design + History Methodology Slam
Brockett Horne
Lecturer
Boston University

A New Framework and Database for Exploring Works of Experience Design
Nicholas Rock
Associate Professor
Boston University, School of Visual Arts

Emotional Engagement in Design: Traditional vs. Art-Based Approaches
Violet Luczak
Associate Professor
McHenry County College, Crystal Lake, IL

Design + Cultural Heritage: The Guano Rug, A Cultural Heritage Under Extinction
Maria Isabel Paz Suarez
Assistant Professor
Universidad San Francisco de Quito

Design + Co-Creation: Engaging Audiences through Cross-Disciplinary Co-Curation
Bei Hu
Assistant Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

Faith and Fiction — The Impact of AI on Spirituality and Design
Nika Simovich Fisher
Assistant Professor
Parsons / The New School for Design

On the Consideration of a Black Grid

Keynote Address: Tenth Anniversary Colloquium

Silas Munro
Partner at Polymode
Artist, Design Author, and Design Educator

From the funky, fresh Black modernism of the Johnson Publishing Company’s headquarters designed by John Warren Moutoussamy with Arthur Elrod and William Raiser to the expressive graffitied grids of Adam Pedelton’s monumental canvases in black and white, there lives a wide-ranging matrix of possibilities for what I consider to be a Black Grid. The renowned design scholar Audrey G. Bennett’s text, “Follow the Golden Ratio from Africa to the Bauhaus for a Cross-Cultural Aesthetic for Images“, traces a lineage of fractal ingenuity in the Sub-Saharan Cameronean palace of a Chief in Logone-Birni that likely influenced Egyptian, North African Temple architecture, linking to Italy through the mathematician Fibonacci know for his so-called “golden ratio” that then informed European ideals of beauty circulating in the infamous Bauhaus art school. Bennett’s postulations connect to my meandering search to see myself as a Black designer, artist, and unexpected design historian in a sea of pedagogies that don’t represent me or my lived experience. This brief visual essay charts a series of experimental meditations on how grids can shape Black liberatory forms. My Polymodal design investigations set a curious space that asks, What might be a Black Grid?

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 10.3: Tenth Anniversary, St. John’s University (Hybrid) on Friday, June 7, 2024.

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.3: Tenth Anniversary, St. John’s University

Friday, June 7, 2024
Time: 1:00pm–5:00pm EST
St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus
101 Astor Place, New York, NY

Hosted by Liz DeLuna, Professor, St. John’s University

Presentations will be published on the Design Incubation YouTube Channel after May 29, 2024. This hybrid conference will be held on Friday, June 7, 2024 at 1pm EST at St. John’s University, Manhattan Campus.

Eventbrite Tickets, in-person and virtual attendance:

Agenda

1:00pm	Liz DeLuna: Welcome
	Evolution in Content Creation: 10 years of The Design Writing Fellowship Aaris Sherin, Professor, St. John’s University
	Cultures of Excellence: Lessons Learned from Eight Years of the Communication Design Educators Awards Steven McCarthy, Professor Emeritus, University of Minnesota
	10 Years of Design Incubation’s Colloquium Presentations Camila Afanador Llach, Peer Review Director, Design Incubation Associate Professor, Florida Atlantic University
1:45pm– 2:45pm	Research Presentations
	Navigating Web Accessibility: Lessons Learned from a Community of Practice Dannell MacIlwraith, Assistant Professor, Kutztown University
	Mining for Ideas: Collaborative Collages as Spaces of Opportunity Anna Jordan, Assistant Professor, Rochester Institute of Technology
	Data in Motion: Storytelling with Data and Motion Graphics through a Graphic Design Practice & Pedagogy Eugene Park Associate Professor University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
2:45–3:15pm	BREAK
3:15pm	On the Consideration of a Black Grid Keynote Presentation Silas Munro, Partner at Polymode, Artist, Design Author, and Design Educator
	Practical Tips for Research Success and Remaining Sane Robin Landa, Distinguished Professor, Michael Graves College, Kean University
3:45pm – 4:45pm	Research Presentations
	Federico: Embracing Outside Influences Kyla Paolucci, Assistant Professor, St John’s University
	Fuzzy Modes, Clear Communication – Radio as a Process, Tool, and Language for Graphic Design Matthew Flores, Graphic Design Fellow, School of Design, University of Tennessee-Knoxville
	Revitalizing Symbolic Urbanism: Digitalizing the Vernacular Visual Language of Detroit’s Urban Landscape Dho Yee Chung, Assistant Professor, Oakland University
	Old World, New Forms: Extrapolating 19th Century American Wood Type Javier Viramontes, Visiting Lecturer, Rochester Institute of Technology

Making History: Teaching Design History Methods in Studio

Learning outcomes emphasized gathering information, examining sources, interpreting evidence, connecting design to social contexts, and crafting historical narratives in text and image

Aggie Toppins
Associate Professor
Washington University in St. Louis

In Spring 2023, Toppins introduced a new course called “Making History” in which students had the opportunity to learn historical research methods and use them in their studio work. At the time, WashU had only one design history course, an elective survey of graphic design, which one student in my class had taken. An ungraded quiz on the first day of class showed that most students had no sense of what was (or was not) considered canonical. None were familiar with prevailing themes in graphic design history. Unlike a survey course, which tasks students with absorbing a broad scope of historical content, this course focused on making inquiries into the past. Learning outcomes emphasized gathering information, examining sources, interpreting evidence, connecting design to social contexts, and crafting historical narratives in text and image.

Toppins’ teaching methods were hands-on and high-impact. Having secured a $2500 Sam Fox School teaching grant, she was able to bring in a number of guest speakers and take students on field trips. Students visited local archives, museums, and historical sites. They listened to scholars and designers with diverse backgrounds discuss their research methods and outcomes. They got to physically handle historical objects from cuneiform tablets to mid-century paste-ups. Students also read historical texts, critical essays, and watched documentaries to prepare for in-class discussions and debates. After each of these activities, students responded to prompts in a provided sketchbook. The sketchbook served as the “field notes” component of the course, in which students recorded their ongoing reflections and took notes on research. In most cases, the sketchbook helped students locate the topic for their final, self-guided project. Throughout the semester, leading up to this project, students engaged in four workshops that instilled specific methods. Each workshop resulted in a short outcome, like a zine or broadside, that kept students connecting the dots between making historical inquiries and making graphic design. The final project asked students to pursue a topic of their own interest. Students became primary investigators, forming their own questions and mapping out their own research approaches.

Student work from this class was strong in terms of formal design and critical positioning. Students could articulate their goals, match appropriate research methods to their questions, and translate their findings into criteria for design projects. They also became familiar with graphic design history’s prevailing themes by thinking critically about historiography and methodology. Another important outcome of this course is that it gave Toppins the chance to test exercises and content for her forthcoming book, Thinking Through Graphic Design History. Some student work from this class will be published in the book, which will reach market in 2025.

MakingHistory_Outcomes Download

This project was the 2023 Design Incubation Educators Awards winner recipient in the category of Teaching.

Aggie Toppins is an Associate Professor of Communication Design and Chair of Design at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis. She combines studio practice and critical writing to explore the social life of graphics. Aggie’s creative work has been internationally exhibited and garnered national design awards including the Type Director’s Club ‘Certificate of Typographic Excellence,’ and the SECAC Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design award. Her recent writing has been published by Design and Culture, Design Issues, Diseña, Slanted, Eye, and AIGA Eye on Design. She has written essays for Briar Levit’s book Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History and Ali Place’s recent volume, Feminist Designer. Her first book Thinking Through Graphic Design History will be published by Bloomsbury in 2025.

A Plural Pedagogy for Graphic Design History

Revised documentation integrates more women, people of color, and underrepresented stories into the curriculum

Kristen Coogan
Associate Professor
Boston University

Today’s pressing social and political landscape prompts reflection. As people, designers, and educators, how can we actively contribute to the cultivation of more inclusive and balanced cultures? Amidst these circumstances, established historical narratives face renewed scrutiny, challenging their authority and the traditional confines of academic discourse. Nikole Hannah-Jones’ groundbreaking “The 1619 Project” confronts the whiteness of American History. Paulo Freire’s “Pedagogy of the Oppressed” envisions educational spaces where a reimagined teacher-student dynamic invites diverse contributions. This research also recognizes the inherent bias found in any historical discourse built on collective knowledge yet often within a singular perspective. As the demand for a decentralized history grows, the question arises: how do we build a more inclusive design history? At Boston University, Graphic Design History students foster inclusivity through a plural design history pedagogy. Revised slide presentations integrate more women, people of color, and underrepresented stories into the curriculum — enabling students to find more of themselves throughout the narrative. Through interactive lab sessions, students contribute distinct viewpoints informed by supplementary readings, written responses, and collaborative discussions. Culminating in extended essays, students disrupt the Western design canon, spotlighting lesser-known designers and movements. These responses culminate in the “Design History Reader,” where specific texts reveal narratives beyond the established versus marginalized dichotomy. Chapters unveil conceptual ecosystems, emphasizing visual and contextual symmetries bridging dominant and minority narratives. The “Reader” serves as a dynamic starting point, open to interpretation. While not fully representative, it’s an expanding, living archive shaped by collective research.

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024 (Hybrid) on Thursday, February 15, 2024.

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024 (Hybrid)

Presentations and discussion in Research and Scholarship in Communication Design at the 112th Annual CAA Conference 2024

Recent research in Communication Design. Presentations of unique, significant creative work, design education, practice of design, case studies, contemporary practice, new technologies, methods, and design research. A moderated discussion will follow the series of presentations.

The colloquium session is open to all conference attendees.

Design Incubation Colloquium 10.2: Annual CAA Conference 2024
Thursday, February 15, 2024
12:00 PM – 1:30 PM
Hilton Chicago – 8th Floor – Lake Michigan (Hybrid)

CHAIRS

Camila Afanador-Llach
Florida Atlantic University

Heather Snyder Quinn
DePaul University

Discussants

Jessica Barness
Kent State University

Liz DeLuna
St John’s University

Dan Wong
New York City College of Technology, CUNY

PRESENTATIONS

A Plural Pedagogy for Graphic Design History
Kristen Coogan
Associate Professor
Boston University

Design Is Not Neutral
Grace Hamilton
Assistant Professor
Baruch College City University New York

From Bricks to Pixels: The Evolution of Banna’i Kufic
Sajad Amini
Assistant Professor
DePaul University

Convergence of Science and Art to Support Climate Resilience in Central American Smallholder Communities
Qiuwen Li
Assistant Professor
Santa Clara University

Sara Wheeler
Undergraduate Student
Santa Clara University

Designing Dialogue: Leveraging Technology for Cultivating Inclusion and Belonging in Classroom Critique
Jenny Kowalski
Assistant Professor
Lehigh University

Abby Guido
Associate Professor
Temple University

Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in an Interdisciplinary, Experiential Course
Denise Anderson
Assistant Professor
Kean University

Analyzing Local Graphic Design History: A Pedagogical Approach
Christina Singer
Assistant Professor
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Uncanny Ways of Seeing: Engaging AI in Design Practice and Pedagogy
Drew Sisk
Assistant Professor
Clemson University