Design Advocacy
Design advocacy has long played a critical role in shaping public discourse and influencing social change. This study reflects on a decade-long student project embedded within a university graphic design course, showcasing the power of design as a tool for communication, education, and activism. Drawing from a sustained body of student-created posters from the last ten years, instructor observations, and student reflection statements, the research analyzes how students’ voices, conceptual strategies, and design skills evolved in response to shifting societal contexts. Key learning outcomes—including symbol relationships, abstraction, type-image integration, and Xerox transfer techniques—reveal how design fosters both creative growth and civic responsibility.
Replace the Hate
Recent events have America divided, and this division is filtering through society and onto our campuses, leaving many people despondent. As design educators, we have an obligation to communicate the power of design advocacy to our students. As citizen designers, we have the ability to organize low cost, highly effective events that will serve to bring the community together and will empower our students to use their creativity as a powerful voice in the world.
SXSW
Branding your food startup is one of the most important steps to launching a successful enterprise, but understanding the design process—as well as finding a designer who understands the unique needs and opportunities of a culinary startup—is critical if you want your design identity to support your company through all phases of business, and to all its stakeholders. Doris Palmeros will share basic principles, anecdotes and real-world advice that will help startups find the best creative partner, understand the design process, avoid major pitfalls, set helpful expectations and ultimately create a lasting brand that supports your business for years to come. Link
Forced Connections
Engaging students in a design process rooted in Gestalt principles and guided by forced symbolic connections enhances their ability to generate abstract, concept-driven logo designs. The intentional use of random pairings as a creative constraint will lead to stronger visual problem-solving, more innovative ideation, and increased fluency in abstraction and stylization—skills that are transferable to broader applications in communication design.
Design a Voice for the Vote
The design teams goal was to create a successful campaign to communicate ‘Vote SA’s’ message of “getting out the vote”. The full campaign included, logo, tagline, billboard, infographics, posters, website and wearables.
Print Is Not Dead
Print production is the medium for all print related graphic design. Teaching this aspect in graphic design thus helps design students think more purposefully and understand the parameters and possibilities of the medium.
Connecting the Dots
Enlightening students to ‘connect-the-dots’ to diverse components and reveal a holistic picture is the primary goal to becoming adaptable designers. As designers, understanding and creating systems should be a fundamental attribute. Understanding the connections between these Elements and Principles in their application is essential. This freshman project focuses on making and applying these connections. It is a large project that is broken down into phases that build on each other and unfold over the course of six weeks.
Type Expressions Class
Enlightening students to ‘connect-the-dots’ to diverse components and reveal a holistic picture is the primary goal to becoming adaptable designers. As designers, understanding and creating systems should be a fundamental attribute. Understanding the connections between these Elements and Principles in their application is essential. This freshman project focuses on making and applying these connections. It is a large project that is broken down into phases that build on each other and unfold over the course of six weeks.
Social Design Class
Enlightening students to ‘connect-the-dots’ to diverse components and reveal a holistic picture is the primary goal to becoming adaptable designers. As designers, understanding and creating systems should be a fundamental attribute. Understanding the connections between these Elements and Principles in their application is essential. This freshman project focuses on making and applying these connections. It is a large project that is broken down into phases that build on each other and unfold over the course of six weeks.
Business of Design Class
Preparing students for life after graduation is an important skill set. Design students leave with a portfolio in hand but rarely know how to move out into the real world. Learning simple time management, financial, organizational, and business administrative skills can help them to get a better start to finding a job and promote themselves. We need to help students connect their right brain with their left. After all, their skills have been only assessed in an educational environment. Those lucky enough to have done a worthwhile internship might not have access to the real experiences of business know-hows. A big problem students struggle with is not knowing how to value their work and thus, the might take low-paying jobs or might not know how to move up the ladder. The Business of Design course I teach prepares students with the strategic and pragmatic skills of managing their time, estimating an hourly rate, understanding a salary vs. contract work, preparing a design brief and work proposals, working collaboratively, presentation and developing a business plan. Ultimately, it is teaching them the nuts and bolts to creating a start up business in the design field.