Teaching & Design Education
Graphic Design • Communication Design • Typography • Design History • Portfolio Development
I teach design as both a creative discipline and a professional practice. My courses connect concept development, typography, research, visual communication, critique, and technical execution with the realities of working for audiences, clients, institutions, and communities.
I have taught graphic design, typography, communication design, portfolio development, and design history at Pratt Institute, Parsons / The New School, CUNY New York City College of Technology, St. John’s University, and other programs. Courses have been developed for studio, hybrid, online, synchronous, and asynchronous learning environments.
Teaching Approach
My teaching emphasizes the idea behind the design as much as the finished object. Students are expected to research, develop multiple directions, make informed visual decisions, present their work clearly, and explain why a solution is appropriate for its audience and purpose.
Critique is treated as part of the design process rather than simply an evaluation at the end. Students learn to use visual vocabulary, defend creative decisions, respond to feedback, and refine their work through successive stages of development.
Professional expectations are introduced throughout the course experience: organization, presentation, deadlines, file preparation, portfolio development, internships, personal identity, collaboration, and communicating with clients and creative teams.
Professional Practice in the Classroom
A major part of my current work connects design education with professional practice, institutional partnerships, exhibitions, and public-facing projects. These collaborations give students an opportunity to work beyond hypothetical classroom assignments and respond to real spaces, audiences, organizations, and production requirements.
Projects have included exhibition design, environmental graphics, wayfinding, motion and social media, editorial design, public installations, cultural programming, research initiatives, and collaborative projects with Pratt Institute galleries, libraries, Blick Art Materials, and other partners.
View Professional Practice & Case Studies →
Curriculum, Research & New Learning Environments
I develop course structures and learning materials that combine traditional studio practice with digital resources, online course environments, multimedia, open educational resources, and emerging technologies. Technology is used as a working tool rather than as an end in itself: to support research, critique, communication, process documentation, and access to course material.
My design history courses connect historical material to contemporary visual culture and design practice. Lecture, research, visual analysis, hands-on exercises, and digital learning environments are used together to help students understand why visual communication looks the way it does and how historical ideas continue to influence current design.
Working with The New School’s XReality Center, I developed a proof-of-concept immersive learning environment for Graphic Design History, exploring how a three-dimensional digital space could extend the study of visual communication from early writing systems through contemporary design.
Why the World Looks the Way It Does • Type Talks • Pratt Ink
Open Educational Resources
As an OER Fellow at CUNY New York City College of Technology, I developed and adapted no-cost course materials to replace or supplement traditional textbooks. I have also developed open and web-based teaching resources for typography, design history, and communication design.
Typography Open Educational Resource • CUNY Pedagogy Profile
Selected Teaching Initiatives
The Typographic Dante — Coordinated a Pratt Institute Type Talk with designer and educator Barrie Tullett around his long-term typographic interpretation of Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy.
Environmental Graphic Design / Pratt Brooklyn Campus — Coordinated a student-designed outdoor exhibition installation on Pratt Institute’s Brooklyn campus, connecting graphic design coursework with a large-scale public environment.
The Bolted Book Project — Developed a multi-semester project in which students research Fortunato Depero’s Depero Futurista and create contemporary responses to the historic Bolted Book through typography, editorial design, production, and presentation.
Internships & Professional Preparation — Professional-practice teaching has included portfolio development, personal identity, presentation skills, internships, client communication, research, and the day-to-day expectations of working within a design studio or creative organization.
Student Work
Student work reflects the range of approaches used across typography, graphic design, communication design, editorial design, environmental graphics, motion, and design history courses.
Pedagogy Profile
My teaching practice continues to evolve around a simple objective: students should leave a course with stronger work, stronger ideas, and a clearer understanding of how designers think, communicate, collaborate, and operate professionally.