Applications are open for 2025 undergraduate and graduate programs – Apply now!

David Shields

Professor

Department of Graphic Design

Contact Info

Website

David Shields is associate professor of Graphic Design and served as department chair 2012–2021. Shields previously taught design at The University of Texas at Austin, where he also served as head of the design program and as design custodian for the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection. Shields’ typographic research practice is made up of an interchange between making and writing, of research through textual sources and direct engagement with physical objects and artifacts of the production processes developed over the nineteenth century and their impact on visual culture. He wrote and designed the 400-page monograph The Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collection: A History and Catalog published by University of Texas Press in June 2022. Shields earned his MFA in 2D from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a BFA in graphic design from Memphis State University.