Design History Chair

An independent book designer, Carolina de Bartolo has been an instructor of typography and graphic design history at Academy of Art University in San Francisco since 2000. Her comprehensive exercises in typography have become the departmental standard for teaching the subject, making a complex subject easily accessible as well as indelible on the minds of hundreds of students.

Carolina holds a BFA in graphic design from Carnegie Mellon University, where she won the Vira I. Heinz Award, a university-wide merit-based scholarship for study abroad. She later earned a teaching certificate from the New School University in English Language Teaching, which has proved to be an asset for developing course materials with solid pedagogical underpinnings. Her graduate-level studies in anthropology and linguistics at City University of New York are an additional influence on her instructional approach.

As design history chair, Carolina was instrumental in bringing the premiere of the film “Helvetica” to San Francisco as well as the “FiFFteen” exhibit, which celebrates 15 years of the FontShop type library and FUSE magazine. Her focus is now on the endeavor to build and maintain the AIGA SF Design Library. She has served on the national AIGA Design Educators Community Steering Committee as treasurer and managing editor of the “Design: Education” newsletter. In 2003, she spoke about online typography education at the ATypI (Association Typographique Internationale) conference in Vancouver, Canada.

Photo by Taylor Richards Glenn