I am a designer, educator, and publisher who was born but not raised in Khartoum, Sudan. My interests include language, form, and specificity. I am also interested in media, Black studies, and pop culture.
I am an Assistant Professor at Rhode Island School of Design. I studied at the University of Chicago, Maryland Institute College of Art, and Cranbrook Academy of Art, and I previously taught at California College of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, Purchase College, and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
From 2018 to 2020, I was a book designer at the University of Chicago Press, where I designed the second edition of Crusade for Justice, by Ida B. Wells, Myself and My Aims, by Kurt Schwitters, Keats's Odes, by Anahid Nersessian, and several other books. In 2018, I published headgear.pw, which was designed and programmed by Becca Abbe. In 2017, I published Sapphire Tears with Publication Studio SF. In 2016, I began piecing together a project called Samples and Parallels, which I hope to reboot in 2021. Since 2016, I have also contributed to Women of Graphic Design, a project founded by Tori Hinn.
I don't know if I want this website to become a blog anymore. Until I figure that out, the following lines will highlight things that have either happened or are happening:
March: I gave a talk and led a workshop titled “Text--Spot” in Marie Otsuka's Interactive 1 class at California College of the Arts. Huge thank you to Marie and chris hamamoto for having me!
April: My work has been featured in SPINE Magazine's University Press Cover Round-Up (Schwitters, Myself and My Aims). Thank you, Jordan Wannemacher, for the highlight! ☀ The “Push Black” issue of 580 Split is up. Big thank you to Darius Simpson, Summer Young, Aamina Ahmad, and Livia Foldes for the opportunity to provide art direction.
May: My students at UIC spent the semester examining process, interpreting form, and collaborating on a spreadsheet publication. Our work is included in the School of Design's Year End Show. ☀ I contributed to the latest issue of Amalgam. Thank you, Pouya Ahmadi, for the invitation!
August: I contributed to this year's Internet Onion. Big thank you to Laurel Schwulst and Meg Miller for including me!
Future: “Scraps: On process, proximity, and Black textual intervention,” After the Bauhaus, Before the Internet: A History of Graphic Design Pedagogy (ed. Geoff Kaplan); Unrealized Archive contribution (eds. Jon Sueda and chris hamamoto); web-to-print celebration with Omar Mohammad; Rutgers lecture and workshop; Samples and Parallels reboot; Headgear (printed edition); Tolkien exhibition and catalog design; UIC panel; art direction for 580 Split.