Statement

My research practice works to bridge the gap between the needs of the design industry and the deficiencies in design skills among contemporary designers. By staying active as a design professional, connecting with industry leaders through my podcast, and researching how industry expert adjuncts (IEAs) impact student success, I have a teaching practice heavily grounded in research. I hold a  BFA in Graphic Design and my MBA with a Human Resources Concentration. My scholarly background equips me with a unique perspective to examine the aesthetic and business trends in the design industry. Some recurring themes throughout my work include human-centered design, collaborative design, and design leadership.

I have been a practicing designer for over 20 years. I value keeping active in the design field so that my aesthetics and technical skills keep up with the fast pace of changes in the profession. In the academic environment, design is unlike other studio arts; design work is typically commissioned by a client who arrives with a problem that requires a solution. While there is room for exploration and innovation, the designer’s fundamental role is to communicate an idea to a specific audience. The solution might be a logo, a brochure, a website, an app, or even an interactive experience. Most importantly, the solution must stir emotions, challenge expectations, and inspire action.

As a teacher in a field in which most students head into professional practice, it is critically important for me to retain professional clients and experience first-hand how the industry continues to evolve. That is why I continue as a working design professional in addition to my academic duties. I thrive when working collaboratively with clients and other creatives and embrace the opportunity to solve real-world problems through design. My client base is diverse–from ice cream companies to lawyers, non-profit education researchers, and tech startups. The projects I have created in the past five years are both unique in creative challenges and expansive in the variety of deliverables. I have designed logos, business cards, responsive websites, mobile apps, trade show booths, social media campaigns, printed and digital reports, and overall brand systems. Each client comes with their own needs and challenges. My job is to navigate each project to achieve the best possible solution. Along the way, I work closely with my clients to understand their perspectives and deliver a final piece they feel a part of and surpasses their expectations.

Extensive research is critical to finding success in my design work. To create design work in diverse industries, it’s imperative I study each field for which I am designing. Part of this education is understanding terminology and best practices. Another part is investigating how design has approached similar problems in the past. Lastly, I work to understand the industry’s specific audience and users. I have successfully applied this approach to my work over the last twenty years. As a result, in the time frame of my tenure-track position, I have received sixty design awards from various industry competitions and publications, including Print Awards (formally Print Magazine), Logo Lounge, and Graphis.

One project my studio recently created is a social media campaign for the American Translators Association (ATA) to celebrate International Translation Day. The initial scope of work called for three celebratory posts, though our extensive research into campaigns with similar objectives showed that a more varied approach could be more successful. We presented our findings and adjusted the creative brief to include twelve unique posts. The ATA launched the campaign on four social media platforms with interactive components. It reached over 160,000 people and gained over 600 new followers. Another recent project was a report designed through a grant, for which I was senior personnel, from the William Penn Foundation. The report, “The Benefits and Costs of Urban Public Spaces,” was designed to share the findings of a team of researchers of Geography and Urban Studies from Temple University, Drexel, and Georgetown. 

In addition to client work, I also create personal projects to explore topics of particular interest. Often, these projects are displayed at invitational shows curated by other designers. For example, a few years ago, I was invited to create a poster for a group exhibition on typography by the Philadelphia branch of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). I was also asked to contribute a poster to the We the Women initiative for another collaborative show that has traveled to four locations. The poster I created for the We the Women project illustrates a women’s rights to have a private space to express milk when she returns to work and is breastfeeding a baby. While most of the work I produce is work-for-hire, I welcome opportunities to be my own client and create work that communicates an inspirational message. 

Design is rarely a one-person show. Collaboration is the backbone to successful work in the classroom and the studio. As a designer’s role evolves, so does the potential for more diversity in collaboration. One collaborative research project I co-founded is PhillyRow. PhillyRow is a cross-disciplinary effort with Clifton Fordham and Bryan Satalino. We began this project in 2014 as a love letter to the Philadelphia rowhome. We aim to educate Philadelphians and tourists on the beauty of the rowhouse and the history of what makes it unique. We hope our work helps bring more attention and resources to restore more rowhouses instead of demolishing them in favor of new construction. We have had five exhibitions, awarded four grants, and our work has won seven design awards. In 2019, we were invited by the Design Advocacy Group to present during their Preservation Pints series. We also have collaborated with the Elfreth’s Alley Association to create a custom PhillyRow print for an exhibition on Elfreth’s Alley. Our prints were also recently acquired to be displayed in the office of State Senator Nikil Saval. Currently, we are developing an app that would help a rowhouse owner maintain their house, connecting them to available local resources.

In recent years, there has been an influx of design thinking methodologies throughout both industry and academia.  Many designers are now embracing a human-centered approach to design. I saw this evolution as an opportunity to understand how creatives work together, which led me to launch the podcast Design Together. I created Design Together to allow guests to explore design collaboration and share strategies to approach each new challenge. Our guests share their expertise, successes, and failures to educate our audience on the nuances of improving how we work together. I talk with industry leaders to hear how they facilitate collaborations, with mid-level designers to hear what skills they have developed to strengthen their team-based work, and with educators to explore how these skills are being explored in academia. 

As of now I have released three seasons with a total of twenty-four episodes. The show has featured author of Design for Cognitive Bias David Dylan Thomas, CEO of handsome John Roescher, and Director of User Experience for the City of Philadelphia Sara Hall. Since its launch, the show has had over 5,400 downloads, gaining more listeners each episode. Seven of our episodes rank in the top 25% of all podcasts released, earning more than 87 downloads within the first seven days of release.(1) One reviewer on Apple Podcasts shared, “Abby creates engaging narratives through her interviews, inviting her guests to speak with authenticity from experience. She situates her conversations in an applied and timely context, highlighting transferable knowledge for application in other environments. Abby and her guests discuss useful examples of collaboration in design, sharing essential lessons for collaborative work.” The show currently has a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. 

Design Together has received recognition both for its content and promotional design. Most recently the show itself was awarded a gold award from the Creativity International 51st Design & Advertising Awards. In 2021 it also received an award of excellence from the 2021 Communicator Awards and a gold award from the Davey Awards. The show’s promotional material also was recognized with a platinum award from the Creativity International 51st Design & Advertising Awards, a silver award from the Davey Awards, and an honorable mention from the Graphis Design Annual 2022. I was also recently invited to participate in a conference panel exploring podcasts and research for design faculty for the UCDA (University and College Design Association) Design conference.

The popularity of Design Together has also led to many other opportunities. One of these included being a guest on Chris Do’s podcast The Futur. The episode “Teaching the Business of Design” has had over 25,000 downloads. Chris and I  discussed how design education has changed on the show and what lessons we can bring from the industry into the classroom. I was also a guest on three other podcasts: Adobe’s The Creative Educator Podcast, Talks with Thompson, and A Leap In The Dark: A Podcast about Creative Education and the Post-Pandemic Landscape. In addition to my guest appearances on other podcasts, I was asked to be the keynote speaker at the “Australian Educational Podcasting Conference,” hosted by the Swinburne University of Technology. My keynote talk, “Podcasting Together: It Takes a Village,” shared insight into creating and producing a research-based podcast and was the highest attendance of presentations at the conference.