About

Helen Armstrong may be the only practicing designer and design educator with a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D coursework in English literature. Throughout her academic and professional life, she has moved seamlessly between the written word and the graphic image. She has taught literary theory and graphic design theory. She is as comfortable discussing the identity politics of Eudora Welty’s novels as she is discussing the Bauhaus Vorkurs.

After Ph.D. coursework in English literature, she gravitated to the world of art and design. She earned an M.A. in Publications Design from the University of Baltimore and launched a career as a graphic designer. Her design work—for such clients as Sage College of Albany, USInternetworking, and New College of Florida—has won regional and international awards. Her work has been included in numerous publications in the US and the UK, including the How International Design Annual, The Complete Typographer, The Typography Workbook and Design Elements.

After ten years as a graphic designer, she returned to her passion for theory and teaching. At the Maryland Institute College of Art she earned her M.F.A. in Graphic Design while teaching in the Department of Art History, Theory and Criticism. Currently, Helen is an assistant professor of graphic design and a faculty affiliate of the Armstrong Institute for Interactive Media Studies at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

In addition to teaching at Miami, Helen also works as principal and creative director of her company, Strong Design. Her first book, Graphic Design Theory:Readings from the Field came out in 2009. Her second book, Participate: Designing with User-Generated Content is now available (Princeton Architectural Press, 2011).

Contact Information:

armstrh@muohio.edu

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