David Short

Professional Title
Associate Department Head & Associate Professor, Graphic Design

Education

  • B.F.A., graphic design, Iowa State University

  • M.F.A., graphic design, Savannah College of Art and Design

Credentials

As a professor of graphic design I have taught with several institutions over the past five years including Savannah College of Art and Design-Atlanta, University of West Georgia, and Kennesaw State University before arriving at UMD. Professionally I have worked for nineteen years with clients including: Arthur Andersen, Captain D’s, Coca-Cola, DuPont, Echo Digital, The Evercare Company, Georgia’s Own CU, Grinnell Herald-Register, Iowa Public Television, Meredith Corporation, Musco Lighting, Pioneer, Roasters, SafetyWorks, Siemens, Type Designs. Currently working as design director/consultant for Bridge Creative, as well as orchestrating my own sole-proprietorship helping various not-for-profit organizations.

Awards, recognitions and honors

Selected to present, “Design Locally, Impact Globally” at 8th annual International Conference on Design Principles and Practices in Vancouver; awarded Imagine Grant to facilitate typeface design programming at UMD; awarded Excelsus Laureate of SCAD-Atlanta 2010 class; “—the Tree” in SCAD-Atlanta’s Artists’ Book permanent collection; GD-USA American Graphic Design Awards—brochure and identity collateral categories; Art Directors’s Association of Iowa Design—winner of two categories; featured in LogoLounge Master Library logo collection books.

Organizations

  • AIGA—the professional association for design,

  • Atlanta Printmakers Studio (APS)

  • Society for Typographic Aficionados (SOTA)

  • The Type Directors Club (TDC)

David

I am an individual, teacher, friend, Iowan, Georgian, designer, illustrator, many things. All of these impact who I am as a learner and maker. Creating work is a deeply contextualized process, generous in spirit and strategic in execution. Each new idea and experience needs to be bridged to what exists in the individual learner. Much of my design teaching focuses upon real-world experience and I strive to bring that experience to the classroom to engage students in practical processes. I believe that students are able to explore new information and experiences when given the support and autonomy to do so, thus they can begin to take ownership of their understandings. With this ownership comes empowerment.