Tag: global

A Global Approach to Typography: Introducing Multilingual Scripts in Beginning Design Courses

Foundational typography curricula.

Anna Jordan
Assistant Professor
Rochester Institute of Technology

Aisha Al Nouri, Jatin Joshi, Unika Dhakhwa
M.F.A. candidates
Rochester Institute of Technology

Design is a global language, yet beginning typography courses in the U.S. rarely teach beyond the Latin alphabet.

The topic of multilingual typography is largely confined to brief mentions in select textbooks, highly specialized design books, or rare elective courses available to very few students. Prior research underscores that awareness of the topic is essential for modern designers because visual communication operates across global contexts, yet it remains largely inaccessible to entry-level students. This study investigates whether short-format sprint workshops can effectively integrate multilingual scripts into foundational typography curricula.

We found that multilingual scripts can be introduced into existing typography courses through short, structured workshops. We designed three single-class-session sprint workshops woven into a beginning typography course. Each workshop introduced a different script (Arabic, Hangeul, and Gujarati) and was led by graduate instructors with expertise in each script. The core approach was a “Learn-Play-Make” method that embraced the short format.

We focused on the visual and graphic qualities of the scripts rather than strict translation, while teaching foundational design skills applicable to typography across any language. The workshops produced distinct outcomes rooted in each script’s formal properties: connections in Arabic, geometry in Hangeul, and three-dimensional form in Gujarati. Students expanded their typographic visual vocabulary and grew more confident working with unfamiliar scripts.

Post-workshop surveys revealed four themes: students stepped outside Latin-centric thinking and recognized that design skills are not language-dependent; the sprint format reduced fear and made learning feel like play; even brief exposure sparked curiosity that extended beyond the classroom; and students grew more confident while expressing thoughtful ethical responsibility toward the cultures whose scripts they were working with. These findings demonstrate that multilingual typography can be effectively introduced within existing entry-level courses, offering a scalable way to prepare the next generation of typographers for the global design industry.

This design research is presented at Design Incubation Colloquium 12.3: Virtual Summer on Friday, June 26, 2026.

COIL & Preparing Global Designers

Sean Nixon
Associate Professor of Art
Program Coordinator, Design Program
Art, Design, Fashion, Music, Theater & Communication Dept.
SUNY Ulster

In 2015, the top 225 design firms generated $65 billion in revenue from projects outside their home countries, according to ENR, Engineering News Report. The REAL World Classroom TM Design Program at SUNY Ulster is paying attention and on task with an ever-evolving pedagogy.
The annual capstone project of the program involves creating a client-based campaign, within an international collaboration. Modeling successful business behavior, using free, internet-based communication software with international partners prepares these design students to enter the global workforce experiencing the value of professional behavior working with clients.

Engaging in ubiquitous, internet-based communication software, the student is coached and must learn how to work in a social, familiar public platform, on a professional project internationally. Their challenge is to maintain a professional demeanor, and separate from their private lives, while solving a problem for a client, as well as participating in an intercultural and team building project. Students learn the necessity of process, professional demeanor, project flexibility and reflection. One major outcome is how this pedagogic process motivates and accelerates the learning process.

Here are the structural guidelines defining the components that the REAL World Classroom TM Design Program utilizes in constructing the Program’s capstone project.

  • The Activity is Structured, Intentional and Authentic.
  • The Activity Requires Preparation, Orientation and Training.
  • The Activity Must Include Monitoring and Continuous Improvement.
  • The Activity Requires Structured Reflection and Acknowledgment.
  • The Activity Must be Assessed and Evaluated.*

* Criteria for Approved Applied Learning Activities. SUNY Applied Learning Resources, 2017, https://www.suny.edu/applied-learning/resources/ Accessed 12 July 2017.

The colloquium presentation will highlight the Spring 2017 capstone as a project example of the pedagogy of the REAL World Classroom TM Design Program, complete with student assessment and evaluation. This particular project produced a Transgender Pronoun Awareness Campaign for a client, the SUNY Ulster LGBTQ Club and the SUNY Ulster community.

To research more on the REAL World Classroom TM Design Program, google Sean Nixon with the REAL World Classroom TM Design Program. The SUNY Ulster LGBTQ page does not reflect the project because the campaign will not be launched until a TBD date within the Academic year 2017-18.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 4.0: SUNY New Paltz on September 9, 2017.

The Avant-Garde of Iranian Graphic Design

Pouya Jahanshahi
Assistant Professor of Graphic Design
Department of Art, Graphic Design and Art History
Oklahoma State University

The advent of the Apple Macintosh brought about a rapid flow of technological change which affected almost every part of visual communication arena, in one way or another. Since the start of this digital revolution, most graphic design communities around the world succeeded in maintaining their national identities, while implementing the technological changes into their industries, hence joining the global world of graphic design. However, because of challenges related to mark-making and the specifics of calligraphic-based scripts, Iranian typography – and by extension graphic design – struggled to maintain and its rich historic traditions and visual aesthetics, as Perso-Arabic characters necessitated a process of digitization for use in dominant graphic software applications of the time.

Furthermore, during this global digital revolution, various socio-political and technological circumstances resulted in the isolation of the Iranian graphic design arena from the global culture, for more than a decade. More recently, the dusk of 20th-century, brought forth an impenitent generation of innovative thinkers and designers, keen to define their lost identity. Through inwards nationalistic perspectives as well as technical and conceptual innovations, this generation made giant leaps and set forth a trajectory toward joining the global graphic design arena.

This research delves into the nuanced traditions of Iranian calligraphy and the struggle for its adaption to western printing technologies. Specifically, it focuses on the process, and the eventual arrival of what may be referred to as a hybrid graphic form – one comprising of the traditional eastern calligraphic forms and nuances, merged with the characteristics found in western typographic structures and letterform design.

This research was presented at the Design Incubation Colloquium 3.2: Parsons Integrated Design on Thursday, Feb 16, 2017.