Type & Design
Education Forum

PROGRAM

11:00a–11:05a | Opening remarks by Sharon Oiga & Guy Villa Jr

PROCESS AND EXPERIMENTATION

11:05a–11:25a | Curious Typography by Dan Elliott

This presentation is about resisting the pull of immediacy and efficiency that increasingly defines contemporary design education. In a landscape shaped by digital tools that prioritize precision and speed, it proposes an alternative: a slower, more inquisitive engagement with typography—one rooted in curiosity, experimentation, and discovery.

Evolving from the original title “An Ode to Typography” into “Curious Typography,” this series of projects invites students to question how typography can be made, not merely what it is “supposed” to look like. Working across materials and processes—Letraset, Riso, letterpress, scanners, cast light & shadow, and reimagined digital methods—students begin with a simple question: what if…? From there, typography becomes a vehicle for investigation, where critical thinking emerges through hands-on exploration and unexpected outcomes.

The presentation situates this approach within a broader history of typographic practices, outlines the project’s structure and evaluative framework, and shares student work that demonstrates how curiosity-driven processes can extend beyond a single assignment into an ongoing mode of making.

11:25a–11:35a | Spatial & Dimensional Typography by Sharon Oiga

11:35a–11:55a | Typography with Time: Education for First-Year Students Fostering Critical Thinking by Albert Choi

Typography is more than arranging letters—it’s a tool for expressing ideas, emotions, and the passage of time. In today’s visual communication world, introducing typography early in the design curriculum is transformative. In 2023, I wrote “Basic Principles of Visual Communication” for first-year students, featuring innovative typographic exercises. Embedding these challenges in the foundational 2D design course helps students not only learn the rules but also break them thoughtfully, guided by the idea that “visual appropriateness enhances knowledge, and visual ambiguity promotes critical thinking.”

Through hands-on projects, students shape visual communication with creativity and purpose. The final chapter, “Concept of Time,” explores the interaction between time and visual expression. Time cannot be changed, but in design, it is endlessly expressive—capturing fleeting moments or gradual change. The three key exercises—“Matter and Time,” “Nature and Time,” and “Energy and Time”— encourage students to experiment with materials and typography, pushing design boundaries and deepening critical thinking.

11:55a–12:10p | Q+A

12:10p–12:25p | Break

SYSTEMS AND METHODOLOGY

12:25p–12:45p | Filling the Gap in Graphic Design Curriculum by Sajad Amini

Traditional graphic design pedagogy often centers on the “technical maker,” producing graduates who risk being viewed as mere “pixel pushers.” This narrow focus is increasingly vulnerable to AI and shifting industry demands. By decoupling design thinking from a singular focus on production, we can empower students to identify their unique strengths across diverse roles ensuring their academic journey remains vital regardless of their career path.

The session will detail the findings and methodology of 14Lab, a newly established in-house design studio within the School of Design at DePaul University. 14Lab operates as a pedagogical intervention where students are hired into specialized roles under faculty supervision to foster professional identity formation.

Critically, the studio environment serves as a site for a new type of upper-level undergraduate course. In this setup, students function as a professional team on quarter-long projects, held accountable for specific roles within a collaborative hierarchy. This model ensures that design education remains vital for various career trajectories, emphasizing leadership and strategy over rote production.

12:45p–12:55 | No. 268: Typographic Systems as Institutional Strategy by Jan Ballard

Design is often taught as self-expression, focused on aesthetics and personal style, but in professional practice it drives strategy, shapes communication, and delivers measurable value. This session presents a cross-disciplinary approach that positions typography as a strategic tool, connecting creative exploration with real-world impact.

In No. 268: TCU Fashion Magazine, Graphic Design students were tasked to develop a complete editorial brand system anchored in TCU Purple (PMS 268). Students created a masthead, cover templates, editorial spreads, and social media assets using a disciplined typographic hierarchy of Montserrat, Bebas Neue Pro, and Playfair Display or Lora. The result is a deployable system that supports recruitment, industry engagement, and external communications.

Students faced challenges similar to professional practice, translating expressive fashion aesthetics into structured typographic systems and working within strict institutional brand standards while maintaining editorial voice. The project demonstrated how typography can unify diverse perspectives, align departmental priorities, and turn student proposals into a strategic institutional asset.

12:55p–1:15p | Beyond Safe Pairings: Teaching Font Pairing Through Randomized Constraint by Thomas Jockin

Font pairing is often taught through rules designed to reduce risk rather than cultivate judgment. In a design culture shaped by algorithmic suggestion and AI-generated sameness, that approach risks reinforcing visual conformity rather than cultivating typographic judgment. This presentation introduces a classroom model that uses randomized, time-constrained font pairing prompts to move students beyond default choices and predictable results. Rather than selecting typefaces they already assume will work together, students must navigate unexpected pairings through hierarchy, spacing, scale, contrast, and context. The talk outlines the exercise, its pedagogical rationale, and student outcomes. Together, randomness, speed, and constraint can move font pairing beyond safe matching toward typographic judgment.

1:15p–1:25p | Designing with Rules: Teaching Computational Thinking Through Type, Systems, and Code by Cat Normoyle

This presentation explores a rule-based approach to teaching typography that bridges analog design processes with computational thinking and creative coding. Situated within an undergraduate communication design course, the work positions constraints, systems, and play as central to both form-making and learning.

Students begin with analog exercises using structured prompts and rule-based constraints to generate compositions, emphasizing process, variation, and iteration. They then translate these methods into code using p5.js, where variables, loops, and conditions become tools for design exploration. The course culminates in a grid-based typeface project. Students develop a typographic system grounded in rules, complete a full alphabet in 2D, and extend it into an interactive format where code transforms static letterforms into dynamic, responsive experiences.

By moving between analog and computational workflows, students come to understand coding as a design methodology rooted in logic and conditional thinking. As computational tools reshape design practice, how might teaching rule-based thinking prepare students to critically engage with these systems?

1:25p–1:40p | Q+A

1:40p–3:00p | Long Break

COMMUNITY, CULTURE, AND PLACE

3:00p–3:10p | On Tap: Embracing Community Along the Columbia Tap Trail by Jose Romero

Each year, thousands of graphic designers from around the world submit their work for consideration to the SEGD Global Design Awards. Last Year, the SEGD recognized only one student-led project. That honor went to Columbia Tap Trail: On Tap, a community-centered experiential design project created by University of Houston students in collaboration with faculty and community stakeholders. The project focused on the Columbia Tap Trail, which passes through three historically rich neighborhoods in Houston. Neighborhoods that, despite their cultural significance, had seen limited investment and amenities.

The project positioned the trail as a platform for storytelling and connection. Through temporary installations and public engagement, On Tap invited residents and visitors alike to reflect on the past, engage with the present, and imagine the future of the neighborhoods connected by the trail. This talk is given by one of the students involved, and emphasizes the importance of educators allowing their students to take on great responsibility with their design challenges, and the incredible output that can result from allowing them the freedom to make mistakes.

3:10p–3:20p | Fileteado Porteño: Typography, Identity, and Cultural Expression in Argentina by Camila Yepes

This presentation explores fileteado porteño, a traditional Argentine lettering style, through both research and personal design investigation. Originally created in Buenos Aires as decoration for carts and buses, fileteado developed into a bold visual language that reflects identity, humor, and everyday culture.

Through my project, I analyzed its key features—ornamental forms, vibrant color, dimensional shading, and expressive typography—and experimented with how these elements function as both design and storytelling. This process allowed me to understand fileteado not only as a style but as a cultural practice shaped by place and community.

As a Latin American designer, this work became a way to reconnect with regional visual traditions and consider how they can exist within contemporary design spaces. This presentation highlights the importance of preserving and reinterpreting cultural typographies, inviting designers to engage with type as a living, evolving form of cultural expression.

3:20p–3:30p | Going Off-Script: Cultural Sensitivity in the Typographic Landscape by Kristine Lauron

“When we loosen the requirements to be in a world, we create room for others to be.” (Ober & Kojima, 2025)

This talk assesses the current type industry in its Euro-centric standards and proposes a shift towards looking at world scripts as an equal inspiration to their Latin counterpart.

What began as a thesis topic, this talk addresses institutions and practitioners in how they treat world scripts. "Non-Latin", "mess", "harmony" – the research references principles of Western typography and highlights how they have developed the oppressive practice and language surrounding script.

The book, On-Script // Off-Script, emerged from the findings and is submitted as an entry for the International Society of Typographic Designers. The publication encourages us to “flip the script” on current standards in the typographic landscape. It explores the beauty in embracing the diverse characteristics of world scripts such as Korean and Arabic, while challenging the notions of “clutter” and “bad design.”

3:30p–3:50p | Place & Meaning-Making: Embracing Process, Nuance, and the Creative Consciousness by Thi Nguyen

This presentation showcases place-specific design projects taught to Junior/Senior BFA students. The project invites students to design not from a brief, but from a place — resisting predetermined outcomes and leaning into their creative consciousness. Students learn to trust the process as a generative space — not a problem to resolve, but a condition to work with. Through observing and contemplating, they develop a personal relationship with their surroundings before deciding what can be created.

The outcome, whatever form it takes, becomes a reflection of their experience rather than an engineered solution. Through conversations with the people who inhabit the place, students move beyond personal observation into shared experience — challenging their perceptions and expanding their creative process.

As an educator, I continually question what it means to be a designer outside the corporate context. This project offers students the opportunity to ask those questions early — to think differently about design as a form of meaning-making, and to lean into their own way of seeing.

3:50p–4:05p | Q+A

4:05p–4:20p | Break

ERA AND CONTEXT

4:20p–4:30p | Unusual Specimens: Conceptual Explorations in Type Personality by Jenny Kowalski

How can a deep dive into the personality of a typeface foster conceptual thinking?

This presentation will share a 7-week project in which intermediate graphic design students develop and produce multi-page experimental type specimens. Situated within a Bachelor of Arts program without a standalone typography course, this project allows students to engage in independent creative inquiry while also learning type history, typography fundamentals, design systems, and physical book construction.

Each student selects a distinct typeface from a curated list ranging from the “classics” to notable recent releases. They present research on their typeface and complete a design sprint to consider the face’s personality. If it were a restaurant, what would it serve? If it were a movie, what would the genre be? If it were a greeting card, what event would it be for?

Students work through rounds of ideation to develop a concept that demonstrates a memorable take on their typeface. The size, page count, and specifics of the content must all be determined by the concept. What happens when you mix a Filosofia type specimen with the secret menu of a local sandwich shop?

4:30p–4:40p | Type Through the Modern Decades by Ashley Pigford

“The more you know about the past, the better prepared you are for the future.”
—Theodore Roosevelt

In this series of assignments from my Typographic Methods course (3rd-year BFA Visual Communications majors), students follow the chapters of the assigned book, The History of Graphic Design, Vol. 2, 1960–Today, edited by Jens Müller and Julius Wiedemann, to learn about the social and technological influences on typographic history. For each decade, the students are challenged to apply the pathos of the time period to the creation of a poster for an assigned music artist.

Their journey includes: 1960s (International Style / Devo); 1970s (revolution against corporations / Ani DiFranco); 1980s (prevalence of modernism, with technological influence / New Order); 1990s (basically breaking all the rules they have learned so far / ABBA); and the 2000s and beyond (integration of historical canons with cultural relevance / A Tribe Called Quest).

Throughout this series of assignments, students learn by doing—realizing the constraints and inspiration of the last eighty years of design and type history by creating work for musical artists that embody those ideas.

4:40p–5:00p | Building Typographic Literacy in a First Graphic Design Course by Nancy Bernardo

How do you teach typography when most students have little or no art and design foundation and are encountering graphic design for the first time? This presentation reflects on teaching typography within an introductory interdisciplinary graphic design course at a school that has not traditionally offered graphic design. Without a separate foundations sequence or type-only class, students need ways to build visual judgment, typographic awareness, and historical understanding at the same time. I will share strategies for introducing typography through structured observation, guided analysis, critical writing, and design translation. One project asks students to analyze archival objects through questions of form, function, user, production, context, and history, then translate that research into an Instagram carousel for a contemporary audience. This process helps students think about hierarchy, pacing, image-text relationships, and how formal choices shape meaning. I will discuss how this approach builds typographic literacy while making introductory graphic design both accessible and rigorous for non-design majors.

5:00p–5:20p | Beyond Letterforms: Typographic Design as Narrative by Stephanie Simkin

This talk presents an undergraduate assignment in which students develop custom display typefaces inspired by archival and cultural source material. The project reframes type design as both technical and conceptual, positioning letterforms as a system for visual storytelling.

The assignment is informed by the author’s work with revival typography, grounded in research on Victorian-era trade card advertising. While these cards are known for rich illustrations, the typography is equally complex. Students examined the author’s process for analyzing and synthesizing letterforms, as well as the role of type in contemporary design and the work of foundries engaged in source-based revival.

Students produced conceptually rich and formally varied outcomes. Sources ranged from antique books and hand-lettered Mexican store signage to 19th-century playing cards and a grandfather’s handwritten journal.

The talk will show process work, type specimen sheets, and promotional posters, showcasing a pedagogical model for developing both technical craft and conceptual voice that opens space for students to draw from cultural traditions, expanding whose visual histories are preserved.

5:20p–5:35p | Q+A

5:35p–5:40p | Closing remarks

5:45p–6:15p | Education Forum Closing Reception at Assembly Lounge, Revolution Hall, 2nd fl (Ed Forum attendees only. Conference badge required.)

6:00p–9:00p | FutureFonts & Friends Party