Cal Swann: Professor of Typographic Design and Legacy

Lefteris Heretakis

The Second Mountain: John McFaul’s Search for Purpose in Design – Design Education Talks

Get in touch!Today on Design Education Talks, we’re joined by John McFaul , Executive Creative Director, Brand Consultant, Educator, and one of those rare, restless creatives who has never quite fitted into the neat boxes the world tries to offer. From the Wirral to New York, from art school misfit to brand visionary, John's career is a vivid testament to curiosity, risk-taking, and cultural immersion.He began his journey believing he was a failure for choosing Art & Design over Oxford or Cambridge , until his foundation year transformed everything. Since then, John’s path has included studying at Kingston, a brief stint at Central Saint Martins, and pioneering the early fusion of illustration, digital tools and boundary-breaking design. He co-founded Black Convoy, then launched McFaulStudio, working with clients like Nike, Levi’s, New Balance, Brand Jordan, and more , often blending art, fashion, photography, and culture into truly genre-defying work.After closing McFaul-Day in 2024, having led a decade-long partnership with New Balance and other major lifestyle brands, John now finds himself at a turning point , what he calls the “Second Mountain.” Diagnosed with ADHD and fuelled by a desire to create work with more purpose and community impact, he is exploring new models of creative leadership and education.In the classroom, John is known for bringing raw honesty, boundless cultural insight, and a powerful message: that creativity is messy, emotional, and deeply human. He speaks openly about failure, process, and the dangers of marketised education, and he champions a design education rooted in risk, curiosity, and authenticity.Whether consulting global brands or inspiring the next generation, John McFaul remains a passionate advocate for creative freedom, experimentation, and meaningful cultural engagement.Welcome, John.this is hilarious!Support the showSince its inception in 2019, Design Education Talks podcast has served as a dynamic platform for the exchange of insights and ideas within the realm of art and design education. This initiative sprang from a culmination of nearly a decade of extensive research conducted by Lefteris Heretakis. His rich background, intertwining academia, industry, and student engagement, laid the foundation for a podcast that goes beyond the conventional boundaries of educational discourse.See all of our work on on https://linktr.ee/thenewartschoolFollow us on twitter at @newartschoolRead our latest articles at https://newartschool.education/and https://heretakis.medium.com/Equipment used to produce the podcast:Rodcaster pro IIRode NT1 5th generationElgato Low profile Microphone ArmMonster Prolink Studio Pro microphone cableThe rest of the equipment is here 👉https://kit.co/heretakis/podcasting
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Cal Swann attended art school in his hometown at Leicester College of Art in 1951. Specialising in typography under Tom Westley for the last three years, he gained the National Diploma in Design (Typography) and Full Tech C&G in Typographic Design in 1956.

RAF National Service followed, and then quick career moves in print design, a couple of advertising agencies and eventually lecturing. Job chasing took him to London and elsewhere around UK. He produced his first book Techniques of Typography in 1969 while lecturing at Manchester College of Art and Design. An interest in linguistics was enhanced with an MA in Applied Linguistics, Lancaster in 1986, resulting in his second book Language and Typography in 1991, also with Lund Humphries.

Cal was Head of Graphic Design at Saint Martin’s School of Art in Covent Garden from 1981-86 and his last position in UK was as Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Art and Design at Liverpool Polytechnic.

He moved to Australia in 1989 as Head of Design at the University of South Australia where he was awarded a Professorship in Typographic Design. Cal was in 1996 appointed Professor of Design at Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia where he launched the first totally online Master of Design in 1998. Retiring from fulltime professoring in 2001, he was still active in design and teaching and developed and taught three typographic design units online for Virtu Design Institute until 2019.

He is continuing writing and designing (and playing a little amateur jazz on vibraphone) and enjoying a relaxed retirement with his wife Sandra, about 50K south of Perth and next to the Bush, in Western

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Published by Lefteris Heretakis

Navigating you through the disruption in #art, #design and #designeducation.

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