We designed the total identity for the 2026 Temple University Japan Academic Conference, including coming up with the conference theme and name: Together.

The initiative included the design of the conference logo, key art, signage, booklets, shirt, conference badges, video bumpers, and a whole lot more.

Motion graphics for the video bumper were animated by Kyle Broyles.

Ian and TUJ colleague Chris Lee also gave a presentation at the conference titled “The Methodology is the Message”.

Here is the presentation abstract:

So, what is graphic design anyway? We are all familiar with the outcomes of graphic design. It could be a logo. It could be a book. It could be a website. It could be the title sequence to a movie. It could be the eye-searing Pizza-La promotional circular that haunts your home mailbox… There are tons of different ways that graphic design is expressed in the world.

Graphic design is a vocation. It is technically not a profession. Graphic design education is a profession.

Within this presentation, we will explain the fundamental (and hauntological!) differences, the increased importance of human-centered design decision-making in the Age of AI, why a graphic design concentration is being fomented currently at TUJ, and what it means, objectively and subjectively for contemporary liberal arts education.

In short: be afraid. Be very, very afraid.

(End abstract.)

The vintage clip art and advertising art used for the conference was collected by Sean Tejaratchi and originally published in the compendium Crap Hound.

The photographs of owls in the wild are by Jeff Schwilk.

The conference identity was made using the typefaces Wordshape BlkOut and Vaud Pro.

Thanks to the TUJ Conference Committee, the TUJ Research department, all participating faculty, staff, and students, and to the institution as a whole.

It was a great conference!