kristen coogan

The Design History Reader offers a fresh perspective on design history. Rather than following the Western chronological model highlighting canonical heavyweights, this book approaches history through a thematic lens.

The eight chapters are organized around core concepts that span geography and temporality: Herstory, Heroic Craft, Democracy on Demand, Appreciation vs. Appropriation, The Dark Fantasy, Visual Sovereignty, Spectacular Gimmicks, and The Black Experience. This reorganization democratizes the design canon, moving away from a Western-centric view to encompass diverse global contributions.

Traditional binaries like good/bad, high/low, expensive/cheap, rare/ubiquitous, and professional/amateur are being replaced with new criteria for evaluation, such as dominant/minority, digitized/crafted, authentic/mass-produced, and global/local. These shifts challenge preconceived notions of professionalism and 'good design.' In this new framework, good design becomes more inclusive, and artifacts across the spectrum of design history are being reconsidered and their value amplified.

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Kristen Coogan and Mary Yang and the Boston University Graphic Design (BUGD) department partnered with Design Incubation (DI) to launch DI’s tenth-anniversary colloquium as part of BU Graphic Design / Design Week. The 2024 Colloquium showcased design research through four lively, interactive panels featuring practitioners, creators, and educators:
Design + Translation
Design + Subversion
Design + Performance
Design + Methodology.

DI is a national platform for educators and practitioners of Graphic Design to discuss design research and practice. DI aims to foster a community where designers can evaluate creative work through the lens of scholarly activity and academic review.

Design Incubation Colloquium Website

Assets developed by Mary Yang’s BFA and MFA Branding Design students

This panel presentation focused on the origin and development of the Design History Reader, a book generated through a pluralistic approach to teaching design history.

Presentation

Launched the Design History Reader (prototype) with a presentation at the AIGA Design Educators Conference as part of the Design Literacies panel.

Conference Website

The Design History Reader is an anthology developed through a pluralistic approach to design history at Boston University. My plural teaching style democratizes the classroom and relocates authority in historical narratives. It helps students place their lived experiences and unique cultural backgrounds within the ‘canon’ — empowering them to tell stories that deserve attention.

The stories they tell comprise the Design History Reader. The Reader is organized into chapters defining themes that emerged over four years of collective student engagement in this research. The eight core concepts represent a contemporary telling of design history and present a new way for students, educators and designers to engage with a historical narrative.

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Presented at the 2022 AIGA Design Educators Conference in Seattle, Washington, this presentation introduced a revised pedagogy for teaching graphic design history. The updated approach emphasizes the student’s role as a citizen scholar, leading to the integration of more women, people of color, and underrepresented narratives into the curriculum.

Conference Proceedings

A Plural Pedagogy for Graphic Design History Presentation and launch of the Design History Reader prototype, an emerging anthology showcasing the student voice as citizen scholar.

SAME / DIFFERENCE Conference Website

Conference Proceedings

An article examining style. Style cycles in and out of fashion—history helps us decode the present and forecast the future.

Available here

An article positioning design history as a tool needed to decode contemporary visual culture.

Available here

Presented the process MFA students followed to design a typeface using simplified forms to build a complex and dynamic typographic system. Part of the Process + Discovery panel.

More information here, here, and here.

Interactive journal whose visual language complements the positive psychology theme.

Typographic illustrations done in collaboration with Estudio Zavala.

Book designed in conjunction with Boston Medical Center physicians outlining new pedagogy supporting enhanced patient safety measures within the Medical School curriculum.

Illustrations by Alison Staffin.

Available here

Animations designed in tandem with the OK to Proceed book. Each of the fifty book chapters has an accompanying animation illustrating the concepts through a multi-media lens.

Vision book presenting the College of Fine Arts five year strategic plan.

7” x 10”, 42 pages

Exhibition poster promoting the Non-Atomic show, which presented paintings and drawings driven by ephemerality. The newsprint itself is similarly ephemeral as the pages decay over time.

Tabloid size, newsprint

Poster campaign announcing artist Maya Lin’s 2015 lecture in collaboration with Boston University Arts Initiative and the School of Visual Art’s Contemporary Perspective Lecture Series.

40" x 60" display poster

72” x 24” bus panel

Report presented to the President and Deans of Boston University outlining BU’s ambitious goal to create a hub in the Boston entrepreneurial ecosystem that benefits students, alumni, and faculty.

Comedy of Manners Exhibit Catalog showcasing Jackie Gendel's work from her solo show at the Jeff Bailey Gallery in 2012.

Poster mailer announcing Boston University's 2014–2015 lecture series.

24" x 33"

Poster immortalizing the ephemeral nature of Twitter messages.

24" x 36"

Winner, AIGA Best of New England, 2013

A book serving the Private Investments business units at Fidelity Investments. The book sought to communicate business insights, strategies and conclusions to myriad audiences through a common visual language.

Based on the success of the first handbook, a second book was developed to serve the Private Investments business units at Fidelity Investments. The book sought to communicate business insights, strategies and conclusions to myriad audiences through a common visual language.

Poster mailer announcing Boston University's 2013–2014 lecture series.

24" x 33"

An invitation announcing the Gendel McGrath nuptials. In collaboration with Jackie Gendel.

2013 AIGA Best of New England Competition and Exhibition Call for Entries poster.

24" x 31.5"

In collaboration with Nick Rock

AIGA Best of New England Competition and Exhibition catalog showcasing all the 2013 winners.

5.9" x 8.6", 136pp

In collaboration with Nick Rock

Animation announcing the 2013 AIGA Best of New England (BoNE) show. Looped at the Meet the Judges event and Opening Night fesitivities.

Exhibition design for the 2013 AIGA Best of New England show. The show was flexible and dynamic, evolving as users touched and moved works on view.

In collaboration with Nick Rock

Recruitment catalog showcasing the special people and places found in a BU Visual Arts education.

6.25" x 8.25", 52 pages

Boston Society of Architects lecture series, Speaking of Architecture, logo (and iterations) and end tag.

end tag preceeding Jane Thompson lecture:

https://vimeo.com/59679282

Selected designs announcing Contemporary Perspective Lecture Series visiting artists, 2011—present.

40" x 60"

2011 AIGA Best of New England Competition and Exhibition Call for Entries poster mailer

17" x 22"

Poster mailer announcing Boston University's 2012–2013 Contemporary Perspective Lecture Series.

24" x 35.5"

Winner, AIGA Best of New England, 2013

Poster mailer announcing the 2010 Visual Arts Summer Institute at Boston University 

24" x 24"

Winner, AIGA Best of New England, 2011
Winner, Print Magazine Regional Design Competition

Series of infographics relating Seeing Making Mapping field research. Selection includes:

1. number of churches vs. schools vs. homes

2. color of landscape vs. crime index vs. average home price

3. happiness index vs. air quality vs. homicide rate

4. memory map

5. number of starbucks vs. surveillance cameras

2008

24" x 36"

Book presenting Seeing Making Mapping field research and assesment.

2011

7.7" x 9.9", 144pp

Catalog presented in partial fulfillment of my Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design at The California Institute of the Arts

2007

7" x 9", 156 pp

Poster announcing Chris Kraus' lecture at CalArts

2006

25" x 35"

In collaboration with Silas Munro

http://www.silasmunro.com/

Poster announcing Kenya Hara's lecture at the Corcoran College of Art + Design.

2007

30" x 40"

Poster announcing Fritz Klaetke's visiting artist lecture at Boston University.

2009

24" x 36"