Margaret Urban

http://watchingdogsdream.com

Associate Professor Margaret, or Megan, Urban has taught graphic design and design history in the Department of Visual Arts and New Media since 2008. She is an award-winning visual communicator and is a co-founder of the interdisciplinary, international project Designers & Forests, which links together designers, scientists, activists, artisans, and community members. She has lead design workshops exploring rural communities and cultural landscapes in the United States and Europe and consulted on cultural development and programming in Iceland and the United States.

Megan is also a Ph.D. candidate in Transition Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Her research focuses on how the interaction between trees, forests, and humans may act as a leverage point for a change of behavior and mindset. She is exploring how this relationship forces an expansion of the temporal frame and may facilitate a reconnection with the natural world in industrialized societies.

Megan received her BA from Wellesley College and holds an MFA in Visual Communication from Virginia Commonwealth University, where she received a teaching fellowship. Megan previously taught at Appalachian State University, Virginia Commonwealth University and Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, where she also worked as a design researcher.

Teaching Interests

Transition Design, Graphic Design, Typography, Design History, Forestry, Cultural Landscapes, Futures

Research Interests

Transition Design, Cultural Landscapes, Design Research, Design and Social Practice, Design Pedagogy, Structuralism and Semiotics.

Awards and Honors

• Premier Award for Packaging Design, Chiang Mai Design Awards 2018 (2018).
• Regional Design Awards 2018 : Best of the East, Print Magazine (2018).
• Award of Excellence, Communication Arts (2016).
• American Advertising Award, American Advertising Federation (2015).

Presentations

• "N/A," Method & Critique (2019).
• "Experiential Education: the value of dirt* in graphic design," UCDA 14th Annual Education Summit (2018).
• "Designers and Forests; Forests, history, and design research," N/A (2017).