Graphic Design

Chris Chapin, chair of the graphic design department, joined KCAI in 2009. Previously, he was professor of communication arts and...Read More

Chris Chapin, chair of the graphic design department, joined KCAI in 2009. Previously, he was professor of communication arts and fine arts at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles, where he also served as chair of academic governance and as a member of the president's senior cabinet.

Chapin holds a Bachelor of Environmental Design degree from Texas A&M University in College Station and a Master of Design degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology-Institute of Design in Chicago. He has held various posts in the private sector, including freelance art director for Ogilvy & Mather, and since 1996 he has been a principal and creative director for the California-based Parallax Design Group.

Contact: cchapin@kcai.edu

Katherine McCoy, nationally recognized as a graphic designer and educator, serves as the Joyce C. Hall Distinguished Professor of Design...Read More

Katherine McCoy, nationally recognized as a graphic designer and educator, serves as the Joyce C. Hall Distinguished Professor of Design at KCAI. She was appointed to the position in 2005 after serving as a special assistant to the college's president for two years.

Katherine McCoy and her husband, Michael, also a designer, were recognized in 2005 with the inaugural Design Mind Award, presented at the Smithsonian's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. The award recognizes "visionaries who have affected a paradigm shift in design thinking or practice through writing, research and scholarship."

The McCoys previously held the Joyce C. Hall Distinguished Professors of Design position together in 1987 and for 23 years co-chaired the graduate design program at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Katherine McCoy was a senior lecturer at Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design in Chicago from 1995 to 2004 and served as a distinguished visiting professor at the Royal College of Art in London from 1993 to 1996.

The McCoys spend much of their time now in Buena Vista, Colo., where their firms, High Ground Design and McCoy and McCoy, are headquartered and where they conduct High Ground workshops for active design professionals. As a partner of McCoy & McCoy Associates, Katherine consults in communications and signage design, design marketing, exhibition design and the interior design of furniture showrooms and executive offices. Recent clients include Tobu Stores Tokyo, International Design Center Nagoya, the Chicago Bears, Cranbrook Educational Community, Formica Corporation, Unisys, Philips Electronics and Detroit Institute of Arts.

Katherine McCoy is a past president and fellow of the Industrial Designers Society of America, an elected member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale and a 1999 medalist of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. She was president and chairman of the Board of the American Center for Design and served two terms as an AIGA national vice president. Her work and teaching methodology has been published and exhibited internationally.

Contact: mccoykj@aol.com

Michael Kidwell is a designer with a unique professional history that includes industrial and graphic design experience in both...Read More

Michael Kidwell is a designer with a unique professional history that includes industrial and graphic design experience in both consulting and corporate design offices. Brands that he has influenced through project work include Hallmark Cards, Homelite, John Deere, Mastercard, Samsonite, Sears/Craftsman and State Farm Insurance. His work has been patented, trademarked, nationally recognized and appeared in significant publications including BusinessWeek and Graphis.

Prior to joining KCAI, he was a senior graphic designer for Hallmark Cards, responsible for the design and direction for corporate branded communications in electronic, print, and environmental forms. In his professional practice, as design principal for LXIII XI, he enjoys research as well as a rigorous process of refinement.

Kidwell strives to balance the pursuit of excellence in graphic design with the demands of family life and a passion for cycling. He holds a B.F.A. in industrial design from the University of Kansas and an M.F.A. in graphic design from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

mkidwell@kcai.edu

Michael Eppelheimer has 16 years of experience as a professional graphic designer in both print and screen-based media. Since 1999, he...Read More

Michael Eppelheimer has 16 years of experience as a professional graphic designer in both print and screen-based media. Since 1999, he has worked in Basel, Switzerland, as creative director of Day Software and principal partner at Eppelheimer Graphic Design. His professional experience includes work with a wide array of clients and studios in America and Europe in such areas as corporate identity, product branding and packaging, trade fair exhibits, software interfaces and Web sites. He begins all design projects with a pen or pencil and notebook (paper place mats or beer coasters also work just fine). He believes the success of any design project is based on the answers to the questions you ask, and not necessarily on the information in the design brief.

A native of the Chicago area, Michael obtained his B.F.A. degree in graphic design in 1991 from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Shortly after that, he headed for Brissago, Switzerland, to attend the Yale summer program in graphic design. His early professional experience was in the corporate world of Chicago graphic design. In 1995, the renowned and rigorous studies of the Basel School of Design's advanced class lured him back to Switzerland.

Michael's recent decision to return to the US and enter education is grounded in his ongoing fascination with form and type and the wish to share his international experience. He hopes to be an inspirational guide to the visual, conceptual and professional world of graphic design.

Tyler Galloway is a graphic designer with specific areas of interest in graphic activism, typography and type design and motion graphics...Read More

Tyler Galloway is a graphic designer with specific areas of interest in graphic activism, typography and type design and motion graphics. His professional practice centers around Web and print projects that allow small, independent and civic-minded entities access to design services they normally could not afford.

Having taught graphic design at KCAI from 2001-04, Tyler returned in fall 2006 after completing the Master of Graphic Design program at North Carolina State University. His thesis exploration focused on rhetoric in time-based media. While at NCSU, he was a presenter at the "Thinking Through New Media" Interdisciplinary Graduate Student Conference at Duke University and had a winning entry in :output, an international student competition. Tyler has presented papers at several AIGA national design education conferences and is a member of AIGA-KC's sustainability committee. His work has been published in the books "The Design of Dissent" and "Reproduce and Revolt."

Prior to joining the KCAI faculty, Tyler was an art director at Spur Communications (formerly D3), a strategic marketing communications group in Kansas City. Clients included Sprint, GE/ ERC, Hallmark Cards and Helzberg Diamonds. Tyler holds a B.F.A. in graphic design from Southwest Missouri State University

tgalloway@kcai.edu

Jamie Gray is a graphic designer who believes in the pursuit of design within all aspects of life. She is especially passionate about...Read More

Jamie Gray is a graphic designer who believes in the pursuit of design within all aspects of life. She is especially passionate about design at the intersection of emerging technologies and culture.

In 2006 Gray completed her master's degree in graphic design from North Carolina State University in Raleigh. While there she received the Raleigh Hunter Fellowship in Visual Design and the graphic design department book award. Her graduate work focused upon speculative design possibilities for user-interactive behaviors, which she has presented at the NCSU Graduate Student Research Symposium, the Duke "Thinking Through New Media" interdisciplinary graduate student conference, the Option Shift Control graduate symposium and the AIGA Massaging Media 2 conference in Boston. Gray also holds a bachelor's degree in design from Arizona State University in Tempe and an associate's degree from Cottey College in Nevada, Mo.

As a professional graphic designer in Seattle, Gray handled projects for Nordstrom, the Indianapolis Symphony, REI and Microsoft. Prior to teaching at KCAI, she was an adjunct instructor and guest lecturer in the NCSU College of Design and was an active participant in the local community as a design instructor for NCSU's Summer Design Camp and a community outreach program coordinator for AIGA Raleigh. Currently Gray continues her involvement in AIGA as the faculty sponsor for the student chapter at KCAI.

Contact: 816-802-3547 or jgray@kcai.edu

From environmental graphics to gift-wrap, Terri Nemer has brought design leadership to both the design industry and the built-...Read More

From environmental graphics to gift-wrap, Terri Nemer has brought design leadership to both the design industry and the built-environment. Terri's expertise in corporate communications and environmental graphics has garnered her work with The HNTB Companies, St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Hallmark and Enturia, among others.

Terri's art direction and branding expertise was instrumental to HNTB in marketing efforts which landed high-profile projects such as: Denver Bronco's Invesco Field, Dallas' Trinity River Corridor, Oakland's Oracle Arena, and Kansas City's Union Station. As an independent design consultant, Terri has had a recent design incorporated into a signage manufacturer's product line.

A Missouri native, Terri holds a B.F.A. in graphic and product design from the Kansas City Art Institute. Terri has held teaching positions with Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City Metropolitan Community Colleges and the Upper Room's Summer Program. She is an active member of SEGD and the AIGA and has contributed to design initiatives as a volunteer for local and national organizations, such as the American Institute of Architects, Mattie Rhodes, Community Coalition, New York Tomorrow's Leaders, Salvation Army and the University of Kansas Medical Cancer Research Center.

tnemer@kcai.edu