Threads of Disruption: New Design Narratives

with Heather Snyder Quinn (GD ’18), Aggie Toppins and Kelly Walters

As design, tech and education face ongoing disruption, Quinn, Toppins, and Walters—three designers and educators—are each challenging dominant models in design, technology, and pedagogy. In this panel, they’ll reflect on their practices, the current moment, and what new pathways might lie ahead for the field of design.

Join us via Zoom Thursday, April 24 at 7 PM ET for this lively and informative discussion!

About the Panelists

Heather Snyder Quinn (GD ’18) is an Assistant Professor of Design and Civics Fellow at DePaul University. She was named a 2024 “Researcher to Know” by the Illinois Science and Technology Coalition and serves on the board of directors for DePaul’s Institute for Business and Professional Ethics. An alum and Visiting Faculty of VCFA’s MFA in Graphic Design, Heather explores the intersection of design fiction, technology, and civic engagement—helping communities imagine possible futures and critically engage with emerging technologies. Her work has been recognized by the World Economic Forum, MIT Press, Yale Law School, The Washington Post, Letterform Archive, Draw Down Books, and Hyperallergic. Heather lives in Chicago with her husband, Joe, and their two daughters.

Kelly Walters is an interdisciplinary designer and research scholar whose work engages with histories of Black American print publishing, material culture and archival practice. She explores these themes in her studio practice Bright Polka Dot, and looks closely at the impact of colonization on the formation of Black design. Her publications include Black, Brown + Latinx Design Educators: Conversations on Design and Race and the award-winning The Black Experience in Design: Identity, Expression & Reflection. Kelly Walters is currently an Associate Professor of Communication Design and Director of the BFA Communication Design program at Parsons School of Design at The New School.

Aggie Toppins is an award-winning designer and educator who studies where graphics come from, what they do, and how they change over time. She is an Associate Professor of Communication Design at Washington University in St. Louis where she serves as Chair of Undergraduate Design.

Toppins is the author of Thinking Through Graphic Design History and has published in field-leading journals like Design and Culture, Design Issues, Journal of Illustration, Eye, and AIGA Eye on Design.

She has contributed to several books, including Feminist Designer, edited by Alison Place, and Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History, edited by Briar Levit.

Learn more about MFA in Graphic Design.