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Visual communication design brings together some of the most essential activities: human relationships, personal expression, and the pursuit of meaning. I find inspiration in studio classes, where curiosity, research, and experimentation are encouraged. I emphasize the balance of intuitive design and analytical critique as a significant characteristic of the design process. I am driven to help students understand commonalities in visual expression within a culture and throughout history, and to interpret them meaningfully for a specific goal.

Good design is an aid to good community life. My hope is that the design classroom experience will be a solid foundation for the student’s contribution to public life, and for their continued growth in this ever-changing and multifaceted profession.

Joan is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Visual Communication Design. She is also a doctoral candidate in higher education administration, focusing her research on faculty who teach studio courses as well as on first-year undergraduate students.

For the 2016–17 academic year, she served as the Provost’s Fellow.

She has taught introductory and intermediate design courses — Visual Design for Media, Visual Literacy, Introduction to Visual Communication Design Lecture and Studio, Introduction to Typography, Graphic Design 2 — and the history of graphic design course (Graphic Design Perspectives).