1. Tell us who you are in one sentence.

I am an associate professor that teaches undergraduate graphic design at a private, non-profit university and I teach it online.

2. If you weren’t a designer, what would you do?

I’d have to be creative still. Maybe I’d get better at DJ-ing or become a calligrapher or something. I would love to work with people to help get their ideas to grow.

Maybe I’d open a co-working space that offered a killer cafe, and lots of space for people to work in, collaborate in, and just be in. Yeah, that’s what I’d do. Then I could all the things I want to do with them. Perfect.

3. What is something you wished you designed, either because you love it, or because you feel you could have done it better?

How education is delivered online. Right now it sucks. I feel there needs to be more (a lot more) synchronous interaction between the professor and the students. The asynchronous aspect of online delivery is important, and a huge benefit, but it kills the energy of a class and turns online education into a robust version of a correspondence course.

We need more interaction in online delivery. People need to communicate with other people. I’d like to see better integration of video, live chat and screen sharing within an online course. Have the flexibility of being at home but with the structure of a classroom. Just some random thoughts…

4. What was your biggest design mistake?

Oh I’ve made so many before I started teaching… but one of the biggest mistakes I’ve made was to not take my education seriously. I drank my way through my undergrad degree. I didn’t have focus or goals. I earned an MA when I should have earned an MFA. Now I’m earning that MFA and wishing I had done it 10 years ago when I had more energy and needed less sleep.

5. What advice would you give someone entering the design field?

Understand your process and document it. Be open to new ideas and methods. And don’t think you’re going to work on awesome identity work or ground-breaking websites all of the time.

I tell this to my students all of the time: there isn’t anything easy about design and you can never stop learning.