I am currently a Professor of Design in the School of Art and Design at the University of Wisconsin–Stout. My teaching expertise and professional background covers a broad subset of Visual Communication Design, including design drawing & visualization, concept art, illustration, and graphic design. I teach at all levels, from foundations to MFA.

FULL CV

STUDENT WORK SAMPLES
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GRAPHIC DESIGN

ILLUSTRATION

FOUNDATIONAL DESIGN DRAWING

INDUSTRIAL DESIGN VISUALIZATION

CONCEPT ART

GRADUATE DESIGN RESEARCH

GRADUATE-LEVEL TEACHING

I have advised many MFA thesis projects as both a thesis advisor and committee member. I typically choose to work with students interested in Visual Communication topics such as graphic design, illustration, and story-driven media, and enjoy working with students who explore these through the lens of societal impact, historical context, or cultural expression. Selected highlights below; a full list of thesis advising is available through my CV.

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“A Thread Through History: How Interlinking Contemporary Art with Paj Ntaub Can Connect Generations”
Jackson Yang, MFA 2023 | teaching Digital Imaging at UW-Stout

• ​An examination of Hmong cultural expression through visual communication motifs such as comic books, digital illustration, graphic design, and Paj Ntaub (Story Cloths). Project presents a contemporary illustrated YA book with the story of a Hmong child learning about his family's cultural identity.

“Representation and Diversity in the Horror Genre: How Design Research can Inform the Creation of a Themed Lifestyle Publication”
​Jessica Kromrie, MFA 2022 | Marketing Manager at Canomiks

• A researched analysis of the visual language of the horror genre that identifies socially harmful and regressive patterns, symbols, and tropes, and uses that information to inform the design of a new model for horror genre print media with the goal of bringing representation and diversity to the forefront.

“Designing the Future: Diegetic Sculpture & Literary Adaptation in Speculative Fiction Cinema” 
​Jonathan Wheeler, MFA 2021 | teaching Cinema & Video Production at UW-Stout

• An examination of speculative fiction storytelling in an effort to explore cultural understanding of reality. Influenced by mid-century sci-fi, as well as 20th-Century utopian, futuristic design philosophers such as Buckminster Fuller and Paolo Soleri, this project examines storytelling through visual communication tools such as diegetic prototyping and contextual imagery.

”Chinese-style Digital Painting”
Zi-xu Tian, MFA 2017 | teaching 3D Animation at Visual College of Art & Design

• A study that proposes a new set of instructional standards for digital drawing & painting approaches, such as illustration, product rendering, and concept art for entertainment media, combining the tools and processes of traditional Chinese painting techniques with contemporary digital methods.

COURSE HISTORY

DRAWING + VISUALIZATION
​​Design Drawing 1 / Ohio State
Design Drawing 2 / Ohio State
Design Drawing 3 / Ohio State
Foundational Design Drawing / UW-Stout
Design Visualization (ID) / UW-Stout
Concept Art (Game/Anim.) / UW-Stout

DESIGN FOUNDATIONS
2D Design Foundations / YCCC
2D Design Foundations / Ohio State
3D Design Foundations / Ohio State
​Design Foundations Lecture / Ohio State
​Design Theory & Methods / UW-Stout
Color Theory​ / UW-Stout

GRAPHIC DESIGN
2D ​Digital Foundations / Bemidji
2D Digital Foundations / UW-Stout
​Graphic Design 1 / Ohio State
​Typography 1: Letterform / UW-Stout
Typographic Design / Ohio State
​Digital Illustration​ / UW-Stout

GRADUATE
Graduate Seminar 1 / UW-Stout
​Design Research / UW-Stout
Design Education / UW-Stout
Sem. 2/Thesis Prep​ / UW-Stout
Creative Thesis​ / UW-Stout

STUDENT SUCCESSES

My students become successful designers, illustrators, art directors, and researchers in industry, as well as professors and college-level instructors. They are employed across a variety of industries by entities such as IBM, Crocs, Edward Jones, Amazon, DreamWorks, the NHL, 3M, and Microsoft. They have gone on to graduate programs at North Carolina State University, University of Cincinnati, Georgia Tech, MICA, SCAD, UCLA, Lund University, Ohio State University, and the University of Minnesota. They have taught at institutions such as the Cooper Union, Arizona State University, University of Louisiana–Lafayette, University of Wisconsin–Stout, Ohio State University, New York University, and Princeton University.