25 November 2020

7.00–8.30pm

Tickets: £3.00 – 5.00

Intersectional research exploiting multi modal methodologies, facilitated by the rapid access frontier of the virtual platform must certainly reposition the world view of graphic design. Here, expanding on the responsible design movement and initial findings of statistical research on the niche of Indigenous American graphic design, we enter the world of the student. We are on a journey through the eyes of two levels of students, university and pre-school, that builds a case for broader exploration beyond standard typographic pathways, quantitative approaches to design research, and a re-evaluation of academic and professional type rhetoric.

We travel into Miriam Ahmed’s virtual classroom and share her recent adventures charting an inclusive course through the Wander Type Project – a fully remote assignment undertaken by her typography students at Nova Southeastern University. She’ll also present the initial findings of statistical research into Indigenous American graphic designers who took the AIGA Design Census and who are likely at the forefront of the responsible design movement.

First, Lessons in Typography, is as it says it is. It is an incursion into the genesis of typography where we trace to the formative years, early childhood. Delving into heritage and culture, a subtle and erstwhile subconscious stream into type awareness is espoused as the bosom of the democratization of design effort. Renewed type rhetoric can provide pathways to explaining and validating the immense worth of a career in design and typography – not just to parents, but to everyone.

As a design and communication scholar and educator, Miriam Ahmed’s work is on the frontier of multi-modal analysis. She reexamines the layers and the hype to unearth one essential truth: we’ve been in this business for a long time and we are here to stay.

We would like to thank The Wynkyn de Worde Charitable Trust who have sponsored students and recent graduates to attend this lecture.

Please note that this talk will be happening online via Zoom – you will be emailed the link on the day of event.

Dr. Miriam Ahmed is an Assistant Professor of graphic design at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She is the author of “Minority, Millennial Graphic Designers Say No to the ‘Road to Hell’” in Design and Culture 12(1): 31-55 (2020), “Perspectives On Responsible Design Among Minority, Millennial Graphic Designers” The International Journal of Design in Society 12(4): 29-44 (2018), and the essay “Minority Designers – Leading the Charge Toward Responsible Design” in Citizen Designer: Perspectives on Design Responsibility (Second Edition) edited by Steven Heller and Véronique Vienne (2018, Allworth Press with SVA NYC She presented her students’ typography research at ATypI All Over 2020 and presented research on “Anatomical Grids” at TypeCon 2019 in Minneapolis. She was an AIGA DC SHINE 2019-20 mentor and served on the 2020 Advisory Review Panel for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, and also as a reviewer for the International Journal of Communication and Design Principles and Practices. She facilitated the Q&A after Antionette Carroll’s DC Design Week keynote in October 2019 and was a panelist at the Incentivizing Responsible Design: What Makes It Worth It? discussion.  

She has taught graphic design at MICA, Howard University and was previously an Assistant Professor of Visual Communication at the American University in Dubai, UAE. Her work has been exhibited in the annual Howard University Department of Art Faculty Exhibitions (2014-2020) and as Howard faculty, Dr. Ahmed regularly served on graduate MFA thesis committees. Her courses have included Graphic Design, Typography, Professional Print Design, Design for Advertising, Magazine and News Design, Web Development and Interactive Media, Desktop Web Publishing, 2D Design, Color Theory and Computer Graphics.

Dr. Ahmed received her BFA and MFA in Graphic Design at Howard University, Washington DC, and earned her doctorate in Mass Communications and Media Studies at Howard. She was also a Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) Rising Star. Her research interests include responsible design, typeface persona, and visual communication in politics. Her dissertation investigated the use of Gotham in Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Dr. Ahmed’s portfolio includes a wide variety of print media ranging from corporate branding, publication design, to event branding and promotion, as well as website design and development. For over six years, Dr. Ahmed served as Webmaster and designer within the largest academic unit of Howard University implementing creative intelligence and best practices into innovative print and web solutions. She was lead designer with several client organizations in the DC area including the Embassy of Jamaica and the Embassy of Trinidad and Tobago. Early in her career, as an intern at Lonsdale, Saatchi & Saatchi, she worked on campaigns for Absolut and Hilton. She has recently begun interrogating the heavy indoctrination of modernism within her previous graphic work in favor of exploring and teaching culturally diverse and relevant typography and grid systems.

Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Ahmed is a globe trotter and values immersion in unfamiliar cultures. She has traveled from Egypt to Europe, Mideast to Japan, Southeast Asia and throughout the US and Caribbean, and hasn’t seen near enough of the world yet.

www.miryum.com