Bethany Johns
Bethany Sage Johns is interested in using graphic means to reveal visible histories—social, feminist, institutional and political—that engage the past, present and speculative future(s). Her research and teaching center on how graphic design processes and methods can create new knowledge, using archives, collections, images, texts and data as the elements for constructing visual narratives across media.
Johns began her New York City design practice in 1989 focused on book and publication design for national and international art museums with clients including the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, the International Center of Photography, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Dia Center for the Arts, and others, as well as for various publishers, foundations, galleries and individual artists. She has participated as visiting designer and presenter at Maine College of Art; ATEC/University of Dallas; Materia Abierta: Novo Pan Club in Mexico City; Design Inquiry: Rewrite in Devon, UK; Beautiful Data II: Working with Problem Collections at Harvard MetaLab; and in RISD Museum’s Double Take series To Search: Investigations of the Virtual and Material Lives of Objects.
Her work has been included in the exhibitions WE DISSENT...Design of the Women’s Movement in New York at the Cooper Union, a display of activist ephemera created by women artists and designers at the intersection of feminism and social movements from the 1860s to today; The Graphic Imperative: International Posters for Peace, Social Justice & The Environment 1965–2005 at Massachusetts College of Art; Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture at the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum; Public Notice: Art and Activist Posters 1951–1997, Exit Art, NY; and in I.D. and Eye magazines. Before returning to RISD, she taught at SUNY Purchase, the Hartford Art School, and in Yale University’s graphic design graduate program.
Courses
Fall 2024 Courses
GRAPH 323G-01
GRADUATE STUDIO I
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This studio course, as groundwork for the graduate thesis, will emphasize inquiry as a primary means for learning. Through making, reflection, collaboration, and critique, we will explore the underlying principles that design objects require, and synthesize theory and practice as necessary partners in graphic design. We will look at the designer's role in the process of revealing and making meaning - as an objective mediator, and as an author/producer, integrating content and form across projects as visual expressions of the preliminary thesis investigation.
Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design
GRAPH 327G-01
GRADUATE THESIS I
SECTION DESCRIPTION
The MFA degree requires completion of a graduate thesis. The thesis, as a major undertaking for advanced study and personal development, also assists the student to direct a program of study for an experience that best serves that individual's interests and needs. The thesis is an inquiry into the process, expression and function of the visual in graphic design. Visual search is the primary means by which to develop and substantiate original work which provides proof of concept for the thesis argument, critique, or point of view. The graduate student is encouraged to go beyond established models and to project his/her unique character in the thesis rather than to evidence vocational training, which is implicit. The productions can involve any medium suitable to need and content. Ultimately the thesis is submitted as a written document supported by a body of visual work that is a meaningful synthesis of the visual and verbal, and a lasting contribution to the field of graphic design. Two copies of the document remain, one for the Library and one for the department. Completion is required before graduation as stipulated by the College.
Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design
Spring 2025 Courses
GRAPH 328G-01
GRADUATE THESIS II
SECTION DESCRIPTION
This course is a continuation of the work begun in fall semester's Graduate Thesis I (GRAPH 327G). The 6-credit studio component is complemented with a 3-credit thesis writing seminar, together guiding the synthesis of independent visual and verbal investigations into a coherent thesis body of work. The MFA degree requires completion of a graduate thesis. The thesis, as a major undertaking for advanced study and personal development, also assists the student to direct a program of study for an experience that best serves that individual's interests and needs. The thesis is an inquiry into the process, expression and function of the visual in graphic design. Visual search is the primary means by which to develop and substantiate original work which provides proof of concept for the thesis argument, critique, or point of view. The graduate student is encouraged to go beyond established models and to project his/her unique character in the thesis rather than to evidence vocational training, which is implicit. The productions can involve any medium suitable to need and content. Ultimately the thesis is submitted as a written document supported by a body of visual work that is a meaningful synthesis of the visual and verbal, and a lasting contribution to the field of graphic design. Two copies of the document remain, one for the Library and one for the department. Completion is required before graduation as stipulated by the College.
Majors are pre-registered for this course by the department. Enrollment is limited to Graduate Graphic Design Students.
Major Requirement | MFA Graphic Design