John Bowers
John Bowers has been teaching at SAIC since 2008. He took his sabbatical during the Fall 2022.
John Bowers is a Professor in the Visual Communication Design Department. Through making, writing, and teaching, he explores issues of individual and collective identity.
His making practice repurposes newspapers from public to private record, and billboard paper into forms that address their underlying visual strategies, and have been sold through Printed Matter (NYC), and Washington DC Project for the Arts.
His professional studio positions include as a Senior Identity Designer at Landor (San Francisco). This client-based work has been published in 365 American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), Communication Arts, CMYK, GDUSA, Graphis, ID (New and Noted), Magenta, and Print, among many others.
His writing includes “A Lesson from Spirograph,” (Design Observer), Introduction to Two-Dimensional Design: Understanding Form and Function, Second Edition / Translated to Korean / Published in Korea (Wiley), and Visual Communication Design Teaching Strategies (AIGA Teaching Resource).
He has been a curriculum consultant and visiting designer at schools including the Corcoran School of Art, Ontario College of Art and Design, and Umeå (Sweden) Institute of Design; and a reviewer for AIGA National Educator Conferences, Design Incubation Awards, Design and Culture, Thames and Hudson, and Wiley.
His awarded external grants include AIGA Faculty Development Grant, Fulbright Council Award for International Faculty Exchange, and Oregon Council for the Humanities, which supported his early work with billboards in Portland.
He has served as the Visual Communication Design Department Graduate Coordinator for two years, and as Chair for ten years.
Education
Post-graduate Study, Basle (Switzerland) School of Design, 1984-1985
Yale Summer Program in Graphic Design (Brissago, Switzerland), 1983
BFA, MA, MFA in Design, University of Iowa, 1981, 1983, 1984
Notable Classes Taught:
6009 Grad Projects
5320 MFA Seminar : Narrative Architectures
5310 MFA Seminar : Form, Configuration, Context
5310 PMFA Seminar : Theory and Practice
3045 Interface and Structure : Web Design
3030 UI UX Web Design
3001 Intermediate Graphic Design
2900 Sophomore Seminar : Design Strategies
2041 Beginning Motion Graphics
2011 Beginning Typography
1001 Introduction to Visual Communication Design
