Analyzing Local Graphic Design History with the PGDA

Undergraduate Design Research students at UNC Charlotte have been investigating local graphic design history as part of an ongoing project since Fall 2021. What artifacts do students decide to illuminate, and why?

62 students have researched, wrote about, and contributed 186 local graphic design artifacts and topics to the People's Graphic Design Archive. The project teaches students about biases and factors that contribute to who and what has been included in graphic design history.

Students visit local and online archives and conduct research online to contextualize their artifacts in local and graphic design history. Through this process, students research ways of making, social movements, and graphic design history in order to construct and write a story for each artifact.

Students review each other's writing and create a class book, which combines their essays and sources with a collaborative timeline of the local graphic design artifacts they selected to research.

Christina Singer is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. She previously taught a wide range of design courses at the University of Tampa and the University of Florida. Singer earned an MFA in Art concentrating in Graphic Design at the University of Florida and a BFA in Art concentrating in Graphic Design at East Tennessee State University. Between her MFA and BFA, Singer spent a year teaching English as a Foreign Language in Busan, South Korea. She was formerly the associate art director for EatingWell magazine in Vermont, and she has created designs for various campaigns for North Korean human rights with the non-profit PSCORE based in Seoul, South Korea.
christinasinger.com