John Jennings, popular culture afficionado visited my Graphic Design History class in November. John’s fascinating perspective on the visual communication found in Hip Hop culture was a fascinating, rarely talked about facet of Design evolution. John is also the co-author (w/ Damian Duffy) of the graphic novel The Hole: Consumer Culture and a co-founder of Eye Trauma, a web based collective of sequential artists, activists, and curators who seek to expand the public’s perception of the comics medium.
John broght with him a large portfolio of drawing samples from his recent projects with Damian Duffy. The students were able to see first hand how John draws out a cultural critique of image making through the visual culture of hip hop. And I was a witness to John’s inspiring presence in the classroom. He is a natural leader with amazing style. John and I first met at the AIGA Design Educator’s conference in Baltimore. John was one of the presenters for the Pecha Kucha-style events where a crowd of 300 listened to John perform his lecture as a poem — and it was brilliant.
John Jennings is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.