John Battista De Santis
CREATIVE DIRECTION • INSTITUTIONAL INNOVATION • HIGHER EDUCATION • STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS
John Battista De Santis works across creative practice, organizational development, and education, developing programs, partnerships, and public-facing initiatives that connect organizations, audiences, and communities.
As Creative Director at Webb Communications, De Santis directed multidisciplinary creative teams delivering branding, marketing, editorial, advertising, and communication programs for corporations, international organizations, nonprofit institutions, government agencies, and cultural clients. He directed creative strategy, managed client relationships, developed business proposals, and guided projects from concept through execution, working across teams of designers, writers, photographers, programmers, and production specialists.
As Marketing Advisor and a member of the Board of Directors of the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce, De Santis advised executive leadership and Board members on branding, communications, publications, member engagement, and organizational positioning and developed initiatives supporting international trade, business networking, and cultural exchange between the United States and Italy.
In higher education, De Santis has conceived, designed, developed, and delivered more than 100 undergraduate and graduate courses while mentoring approximately 180–200 students annually. His work connects universities, industry partners, cultural organizations, and communities through experiential learning, professional practice, and emerging technologies.
At Pratt Institute, he developed and expanded Pratt Ink, a public-facing creative practice integrating professional client work into design education, where multidisciplinary student teams develop branding, exhibition graphics, environmental graphics, and marketing projects for university, nonprofit, and community partners. He conceived the 14th Street Creative Corridor, connecting Pratt Manhattan with neighborhood organizations, businesses, and cultural institutions through branding, exhibitions, public installations, and community-based design projects. Through Pratt × Blick, he developed public exhibition opportunities connecting student work with Blick Art Materials and the surrounding community. He built partnerships with Pratt Libraries, Pratt Exhibitions, and Pratt Manhattan Gallery, integrating student teams into exhibition promotion, visitor experience, motion graphics, environmental graphics, and marketing. He also developed Rome Through Design, a communication-design program concept using Rome as classroom, archive, production site, and living visual system. He created Pratt’s Internship Workshop Series and works with departmental leadership on curriculum redevelopment, assessment, recruitment, portfolio review, and long-range academic planning.
De Santis founded Type Talks, an international design lecture series supported through a Pratt Institute DEI Research Seed Grant, connecting students with designers, educators, museums, libraries, and cultural organizations.
At The New School/Parsons School of Design, he developed curriculum across continuing education and pre-college programs in design history, digital learning, career preparation, and professional portfolio development. He developed a benchmark Canvas course adopted as a faculty model for online course design and instructional development, contributed to the Graphic Design Certificate Program, and partnered with the XReality Center on immersive learning initiatives exploring virtual reality and emerging technologies. His Professional Portfolio Development courses integrated research, portfolio strategy, personal and career development, and professional presentation. He delivered programs across undergraduate, continuing education, Parsons Academy, and intensive summer formats.
At New York Institute of Technology, De Santis developed graduate History of Design and Technology curriculum examining relationships among technology, culture, media, and creative practice and designed and taught courses in design history, graphic design principles, and visual branding. He mentored students through research, critiques, presentations, portfolio development, and professional preparation.
At St. John’s University, he taught Senior Professional Portfolio and History of Visual Communication, integrating portfolio development, personal branding, interviewing, networking, internship preparation, website development, career strategy, typography, visual culture, technology, and design history.
At the City University of New York/New York City College of Technology, De Santis serves as an Adjunct Professor and Open Educational Resources Fellow. He developed open-access typography curriculum and faculty resources, created OpenLab frameworks supporting online, hybrid, and traditional instruction, and teaches Typography, Type & Media, and Communication Design.
As Art Director for the United Nations Department of Public Information, he developed visual communication programs, publications, exhibitions, and educational materials supporting international public information initiatives and global audiences. He contributed design to United Nations postage stamp programs and collaborated with international teams on communications supporting institutional visibility and public engagement.
As Artistic Director of the Italian Heritage & Culture Committee of New York, De Santis directed statewide visual communication and educational initiatives promoting Italian heritage, culture, history, and innovation. He developed visual identity and communications in partnership with the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, educators, government agencies, and cultural organizations and created educational materials distributed throughout New York State schools.
As founder, Publisher, and Art Director of Rovere Publishing, De Santis conceived, art directed, designed, illustrated, and published educational products focused on American history, cultural heritage, and museum education. His work has been distributed through the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library, Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, Gettysburg, Independence Hall, Manassas Battlefield Park, Ford’s Theatre, Newseum, Italian American Museum, and New York City Police Museum. He directed strategy, production, marketing, and business development.
His editorial work includes creative direction and design for Scientific American, Fortune, Forbes, Architectural Record, Yahoo! Magazine, and Times Mirror Publications.
EDUCATION
School of Visual Arts, New York
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Graphic Design