VCD Faculty
The faculty of the Visual Communication Design program at Purdue is composed of an international design team with a worldwide exhibition record, national and international awards.
Hyungjoo A. Kim
Associate Professor of Visual Communication Design
Program Coordinator
Hyungjoo A. Kim is a communication designer, interdisciplinary researcher, and educator. Kim’s research and teaching interests are Visual System Design, Typography, Branding, Information Design, Experience design, Environmental Design, Design Thinking, and Social Design.
Kim has been interested in the role of design and visual communication to positively shape human perception and experience. Kim has developed social and environmental posters as opportunities to engage design and examine pressing issues of our times. Kim’s work has been presented internationally in more than 100 exhibitions and publications. Kim has practiced as a designer, illustrator, art director, design director, and a consultant in the field. These positions involved completing diverse design solutions for a variety of client groups. Kim also has been served on diverse advisory, steering and organizing committees for international events and public organizations, and has been curating and art directing international events and exhibitions.
Kim holds an MFA from Hongik University and an MA from Purdue University in Visual Communication Design. Also, she has a BS in Social Science from Ewha Womans University and a Certificate in Journalism from the University of Missouri. For her PhD (ABD) in Environmental Planning at Kyungpook National University, she examines the role of visual system design in the built environment. Her research, as an interdisciplinary study investigates how design objects and visual/information system can be inclusive and responsive to different user groups as active components of environmental infrastructure balancing style and functionality. [read more]
Petronio Bendito
Associate Professor of Visual Communication Design
Petronio Bendito is a visual communication designer, color researcher, new media artist, and digital culturalist. He is contributing writer of The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design (UK) and is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Visual Literacy Association. His primary research interests are visual communication design theory and principles, visual literacy, computational color design methods, and digital aesthetics. He has worked extensively in interdisciplinary projects and has collaborated with musicians, dancers, choreographers, a light designer, mathematicians, and computer scientists. Bendito has exhibited, screened, performed, and presented his artworks, designs, and research projects throughout the United States and abroad in Brazil, China, Bulgaria, North Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Italy, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and Turkey. [read more]
Do Gyun Kim
Assistant Professor of Visual Communication Design
Do Gyun Kim is an assistant professor of visual communication design at the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Design, Art, and Performance. He received an M.F.A. in graphic design from Oklahoma State University. His research the diverse representation of the moving image and texture as a strategy to develop fresh perspectives on visual aesthetics, emotion, and alternative narrative modes. Kim is interested in using texture for experimenting with visual language and methodology in print design and motion graphics. He is interested in exploring how emotion can be conveyed into a visual metaphor to expand design solutions and possibilities. Themes of place, space, and the human condition are represented throughout his work. [read more]
Li Zhang
Professor of Visual Communication Design
Li Zhang is specialized in information design, branding/packaging/advertising, typography, poster design, interdisciplinary design, design methodology, and cross-cultural and social issues in visual design. Professor Zhang is a co-author of the book Social Poster Design: Visual Connections Between East and West. Zhang's designs have been recognized in two hundred and fifty exhibitions and publications in more than twenty-five countries, including Graphis - the International Journal of Visual Communication, Print, How, and the most competitive international design biennials in Poland, Mexico, Russia, and Czech Republic. More than sixty of her posters are in permanent collections of the Library of Congress in the USA, Zürich Museum of Design in Switzerland, Victoria & Albert Museum and Imperial War Museum in the United Kingdom, Ogaki Poster Museum in Japan, and Lahti Poster Museum in Finland. [read more]
David Deal
Continuing Lecturer of Visual Communication Design
David Deal joined the Department of Art and Design at Purdue University as Visiting Assistant Professor in the Patti and Rusty Rueff School of Visual and Performing Arts. Prior to joining the faculty at Purdue, David was an Assistant Professor at Eastern New Mexico University where he taught digital media, graphic design, publication and web design, and typography. He received his MFA in Graphic Design from the Marywood University in 2012 and a BFA in Graphic Design from Louisiana Tech University in 1978. His scholarly interests include typography and typographic design with particular attention to form and structure and their relationship to legibility. As a graphic design professional, for over 35 years, David has held designer, art director and creative director positions for design studios, advertising agencies and in-house design departments. Currently David maintains a design consultancy for a select group of clients. David’s work has been published in USA Ad Review, PRINT’S Regional Design Annuals and the New York Art Directors Annual. Other recognition includes over 30 awards for design in national and international design competitions. (see more)
Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler
Associate Professor of Design History
Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler is an Associate Professor of Design History in the department of Art and Design. Her research focuses broadly on ordinary spaces and objects in the context of everyday life, and her current project is about the progressive origins and emerging problems of the American open plan office (“office cubicles”) in the late 20th century. Kaufmann-Buhler has presented her research at various national conferences and is currently in the process of developing several articles as well as a book on her open plan office research. She earned her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Design Studies, her MA in the History of Design from the Royal College of Art and the Victoria & Albert Museum, and her BA in American Culture from Vassar College.