On April 6th I will be at UAB to visit the graphic design program — and see the influence of new faculty member Doug Barrett.
I’ll be talking about how we can leverage the potential of design to positively shape the human experience. … “Her work is collaborative, interdisciplinary, and international. All three aspects she finds important in terms of developing innovative solutions to contemporary problems that will benefit society. Her talk at UAB will focus on her recent collaborative design projects—in the US and Mexico—that exemplify her philosophy that everyone deserves good design. In these projects she asks how design processes, strategies, and products can be used and/or transformed for social good. Ultimately, they underscore her belief that to design better allows people to live better. Rogal was awarded the first American Institute of Graphic Arts Faculty Research Grant (2008) to support her design for development projects in Mexico. She received a Fulbright-García Robles Scholar grant (2006–2007) and a Fulbright-Hays Faculty Research Abroad grant (2007) to conduct research in the Yucatán region of Mexico and teach design at the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán (www.uady.mx). During this time she led the development of the identity, information design projects, and comprehensive website for the department of immigration for INDEMAYA (Instituto para el Desarrollo de la Cultura Maya) for Yucatán state. She also formalized the “Design for Development” program at the University of Florida, in collaboration with UAB design professor Doug Barrett. Her writing includes “Mexico: My, Your, Our Fantasy: The Problem of Flatness in Intercultural Representations of Mexicanidad” (International Journal of Intercultural Communication), “Cultural Hybridization in the Visual Vernacular” (European Academy of Design), and “South of the Border…Down Mexico Way” (Visible Language). Her creative design work has appeared in several national and international juried exhibitions in the UK, Hungary, Cuba, and the US. In 2003 she was the recipient of a Fulbright Hays Fellowship to México and Costa Rica.”