Maryland Institute College of Art

GD MFA Faculty

Ellen Lupton, Director

Ellen Lupton is Director of the GD MFA program. She is also curator of contemporary design at Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institution in New York City. She has curated and authored numerous exhibitions and books, including Skin: Surface, Substance, and Design (2002), National Design Triennial (2000, 2003, 2006), Graphic Design in the Mechanical Age (1998), Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture (1996), and Mechanical Brides: Women and Machines from Home to Office (1993). She is a 2007 recipient of the AIGA Gold Medal for lifetime achievement.

Jennifer Cole Phillips, Associate Director

Jennifer Cole Phillips is Associate Director of the GD MFA program at the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Principal of J. Cole Phillips Design. She is co-author, with Ellen Lupton, of Graphic Design The New Basics. Before joining MICA, Phillips was a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Communications Design at the University of Baltimore. She has an MFA and BFA from Rhode Island School of Design. Her work has been included in the annuals of Graphis Design, Graphis Poster, Print, the Art Director’s Club of Metropolitan Washington and New York, AIGA 50, and the ACD100 Show, among others. She served for eight years on the AIGA of Board of Directors.

Faculty, 2011-2012

David Barringer writes fiction, essays and design criticism. He is the author of the design books There’s Nothing Funny About Design and American Mutt Barks in the Yard: Emigre 68 and the novels American Home Life and Johnny Red, as well as several fiction collections. His writing has appeared in Voice, Eye, I.D., and the New York Times Book Review. He is the winner of the 2008 Winterhouse Award for Design Writing & Criticism.

Bob Cicero is a master letterpress printer who was owner and operator of the historic Globe Poster Printing Co. in East Baltimore for over thirty-five years. Globe Poster was the renowned creator of advertising for everything from boxing to R&B. MICA recently acquired the Globe Poster collection of printed materials and printing type, and is proud to welcome this legendary craftsman to our faculty and to make this stellar resource available to the MICA community and beyond.

Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson is an award-winning writer and editor whose work has appeared in Slate, The New York Times Magazine, Metropolis, Architect, Urbanite, and The Next American City, among others. She is the author of Urban Palimpsest, a blog about cities, culture, and design.

Keetra Dean Dixon joined MICA’s full-time faculty in the Graphic Design BFA program in 2010. Her work explores the interplay between physical and digital interactions. Her work is in the permanent design collection at the SFMOMA and was featured in STEP magazine’s Emerging Talent ‘09 and tADC Young Gun ‘08. She has been featured in numerous publications, speaking engagements, and exhibitions, including Etapes Magazine, Die Gestalten, and London’s Kessel Kramer Gallery KKOutlet. Dixon developed many of her core objectives during her 2004–2006 masters studies at the Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work has gained notoriety for its friendly, sincere absurdism. Her socially-themed objects and installations involve the viewer as an active participant.

N. Silas Munro was the 2008-2009 Designer-In-Residence at North Carolina State University School of Design (NC State) and 2003-2004 Design Fellow at the Walker Art Center (Minneapolis). The work of his firm FROM THE DESK OF: has been recognized by the AIGA, ADC Young Guns, AR100, ID, and Print. Silas’s writing is published in GOOD, Novum, SpeakUp, and by the Walker Design Blog. Silas has lectured or taught graphic design at Art Center, CalArts, MICA, NC State, Otis, RISD, and Northern Virginia Community College. He holds a MFA in Graphic Design from CalArts and a BFA in Graphic Design from RISD.

R.L. Tillman is a member of MICA’s printmaking faculty and teaches the GD MFA course Screenprinting for Graphic Designers. This artist, teacher, curator, and man-about-town has exhibited his work throughout the US and abroad, including as an invited participant at the 12th Print Triennial in Tallinn, Estonia, and the 3rd IMPACT Print Conference in Capetown, South Africa. He received an MFA in Printmaking from the University of Iowa in 2002. He earned a BA in art and political science at The George Washington University and studied politics at Oxford University. R.L. is proud to be a co-founder of PRINTERESTING.ORG, “the thinking person’s favorite online resource for interesting printmaking miscellany.” He is also the curator of the famed MINSTALLATION GALLERY, which in 2008 was named “Best Little Show” by Baltimore’s City Paper.

Kimberly Walker graduated with distinction from both the Rhode Island School of Design (BFA in graphic design) and The Colorado College (BA in english). With this diverse background she has been educated in researching, writing and interpreting content, and then visualizing that content through design. For the last eight years she has designed for the multidisciplinary firm, Malcolm Grear Designers. At MGD she worked on varied design projects—from print/publication design and identity/branding programs, to interactive and exhibition/environmental design—for The Nature Conservancy, Lasker Foundation, Harvard University Art Museums, International Institute, Anthony Quinn Foundation, and Brown University. Her work has been featured in numerous design publications and exhibitions. Walker is an adjunct faculty member at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) where she teaches Advanced Publication Design in the undergraduate (BFA) and graduate (MFA) graphic design programs.

Andres Zapata is a communicator. He ensures progress through connection, understanding, simplicity and clarity. He insists that strong communication makes everything better. Andres has been an adjunct professor at MICA since 2001. When he is not teaching, he runs idfive, a boutique marketing and advertising agency in Baltimore. As an accomplished usability and experience designer, Andres is always looking for ways to simplify, enhance and improve interfaces. Andres’ client work has been recognized with numerous awards including a Webby, several Addies, Maryland’s Best, and the New York Art Director’s Club awards. He has a B.A. in sociology and communication from Goucher College, an M.A. in design from the University of Baltimore, and an M.B.A. from Johns Hopkins.