Cal Swann: Professor of Typographic Design and Legacy

Lefteris Heretakis

From MIT to IDEO: Sheng-Hung Lee on the Future of Design and Education – Design Education Talks

Get in touch!Sheng-Hung Lee is a designer, engineer, and educator dedicated to advancing human-centered design and systemic service innovation. He is currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), focusing on human behavior and service design. He is also a Board Director at Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). His interdisciplinary research integrates design, technology, and system engineering to develop innovative service models that enhance longevity and well-being.With dual master’s degrees in Integrated Design & Management and Mechanical Engineering from MIT, and dual undergraduate degrees in Industrial Design and Electrical Engineering from National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), Lee bridges technical expertise with creative problem-solving. His professional experience includes working at IDEO and Continuum, where he contributed to high-impact projects spanning product design, service innovation, and design strategy.An active researcher at MIT AgeLab and the Ideation Lab, Lee explores topics such as smart home solutions, Design for Longevity (D4L), and inclusive design strategies. His work has been published in leading journals and conferences, and he serves as a reviewer and guest editor for international design publications. Beyond academia, Lee is engaged in global design communities, including the World Design Organization (WDO) and IDSA, advocating for design’s role in shaping the future of human experiences. For more information about Sheng-Hung Lee’s design and research work, please visit his website: https://www.shenghunglee.comSince 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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