Cal Swann: Professor of Typographic Design and Legacy

Lefteris Heretakis

Design in Motion: James Grady on Creative Process and Emerging Technologies – Design Education Talks

Get in touch!James Grady is a designer, educator, and creative researcher who fosters interdisciplinary collaboration in design, technology, and performance. As an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Boston University, he works closely with faculty, students, and industry partners to explore how emerging tools and processes shape creative practice. His teaching emphasizes experimentation, authorship, and process-driven design, encouraging students to merge traditional and digital techniques in innovative ways.In addition to his academic work, James leads Design Axl, a design consultancy specializing in brand identity, digital experiences, and interactive storytelling. His projects span venture capital, technology, real estate, healthcare, and the arts, collaborating with clients to solve complex design challenges. His research and professional practice explore computational design, creative process, and the intersection of human and machine-generated work—an approach reflected in his latest talks and award-winning projects.www.profgrady.comwww.axl.designhttps://vimeo.com/jamesjgradyhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesjgrady/https://www.instagram.com/design_axl/https://www.instagram.com/prof_gradySince 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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