• Before there was Illustrator

    How can we use computation to augment our mental abilities? This was Vannevar Bush’s query in 1945 when he wrote  “As We May Think.” Two of his ideas: the Memex: (also here) a…
  • Change is part of the dna: Breaking the process into short sprints makes it possible to change directions completely at many points

    Using AGILE in the Design Classroom

    Last semester I taught an Interactive Media Studies capstone course here at Miami U. The students worked as an interdisciplinary team to collaboratively develop a design solution for Coca-Cola. The project itself…
  • handlettering on building

    Cuba Via Typography

    In certain areas of the world, one-of-a-kind hand-lettered signs are still used to communicate goods and services. As noted by Molly Woodward, creator of the digital archive and community-based initiative, Vernacular Typography,…
  • Poster with large Lolita text

    The Lolita Cover Project

    What designer doesn't enjoy the challenge of creating a cover for Nabokov's Lolita? Architect John Bertram contacted me last year to contribute to an anthology that he was editing entitled Lolita: The…
  • Crowdsourced Design or Cheap Labor?

    One of our students asked me recently about design sites that claim to crowdsource design. Although many fabulous participatory projects are currently happening that use peer production in innovative ways (see participatorydesign.net),…
  • Animation spelling the word LINKED

    LINKED: An Experiment in CoCreation

    Developed by Helen Armstrong, Miami University, and Zvezdana Stojmirovic, The Maryland Institute College of Art 35 MICA students in Baltimore, MD / 22 Miami students in Oxford, Ohio—our project began with this…