Visiting Assistant Professor: Communication Design

Title: Visiting Assistant Professor: Communication Design

Employee Classification: Visiting Assistant Professor

Campus: University of North Texas

Division: UNT-Provost

SubDivision-Department: UNT-Col of Vis Arts & Design

Department: UNT-Design-136310

Job Location: Denton

Salary: Compensation is competitive and commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications, experience, and discipline, in accordance with university guidelines and available funding.

FTE: Varies based on assignment

Retirement Eligibility: ORP Eligible

About Us - Values Overview

Department Summary

The BFA program in Communication Design in the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) emphasizes conceptual thinking as a means to address design problems in a user experience design job position. Our student work is competitive on a national level, having garnered recognition from Core 77, Communication Arts Magazine, Print Magazine, Creative Quarterly, Graphis New Talent, the Addys, The Society of Publication Designers, The Adobe Design Achievement Awards, and The Art Directors Club. The BFA program in Communication Design graduates up to 60 students per year. The undergraduate curriculum offers both a graphic and user experience-centered design concentration that helps students develop marketable skills and deep knowledge of diverse design settings.

UNT has a highly diverse campus with a wide range of languages spoken in addition to English. We welcome candidates who have experience with HSI/MSIs and/or who speak Spanish, Vietnamese, American Sign Language, Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin and other variations), Arabic, Tagalog, Farsi, French, or/and Yoruba.

Position Overview

The College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas invites applications for a full-time, nine-month, Visiting Assistant Professor in Communication Design.

The successful candidate will bring well-established professional expertise in their field, along with a strong record of teaching experience informed by innovative ideas that reflect the future of communication design. They will teach undergraduate and graduate students in the User Experience Design/Interaction Design Concentration, fostering forward-thinking, practice-based learning. The candidate will also demonstrate a well-developed industry network, supporting connections between academic inquiry and professional practice.

In addition to teaching, they will develop a focused service/community outreach agenda and will interface with and assist in initiatives related to CVAD’s newly established Curiosity Lab. The Curiosity Lab is an interdisciplinary innovation engine within the College of Visual Arts and Design (CVAD) that integrates human-centered design, experiential learning, and advanced technologies—especially in AI, immersive media, and material fabrication—to prepare students and faculty for emerging creative economies. The mission of the Lab is to cultivate experimental mindsets, unleash human capacity, and foster user-experienced innovation by integrating human-centered design, experiential learning, creative technologies, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. The Curiosity Lab prepares students and partners to navigate and shape a rapidly evolving world. To cultivate a culture of exploration and purposeful experimentation where visual arts, design, humanities, and technology converge to develop human-centered solutions, creative inquiry, and new knowledge.

The college’s standard teaching workload for the Visiting Assistant Professor position is six courses per academic year with possible course credits for work associated to the Curiosity Lab. Additional responsibilities include student mentorship, professional development, service to the communication design program, college, university, and profession, and continued enhancement of the design department creating community and industry partnerships.

This position is limited to up to a 3-year term.

Minimum Qualifications

• Completed relevant graduate degree MS, MA, MFA.
• An active record of professional practice.
• A minimum of ten years of professional practice in the field of communication design with a focus on user experience and interaction design.

Preferred Qualifications

• Evidence of university-level teaching experience.
• Evidence of professional communication design experience, including publication design, digital/web/interactive design, user experience design and interaction design.
• Fluency in Adobe Creative Cloud software: Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop
• Professional and/or teaching experience with interaction design, including prototyping methods and software such as Figma, Figma Make, Google Stitch, Framer, WebFlow, etc.
• Experience developing and delivering design thinking workshops or seminars for professional and/or industry audiences.

Required License/Registration/Certifications

Physical Requirements

Communicating with others to exchange information.

Environmental Hazards

No adverse environmental conditions expected.

Work Schedule

varies based on assignment

Driving University Vehicle

No

Security Sensitive

This is a Security Sensitive Position.

Special Instructions

Required Documents
1. Cover Letter: Outline your professional qualifications and goals for professional growth. Include the unique contributions you would bring to the department/unit and college as a professor of practice.
2. Curriculum Vitae
3. Official Degree Transcripts from all university-level institutions from which degrees were earned
4. Portfolio: A PDF portfolio (or website link) including 10–20 examples highlighting your teaching and professional practice
5. References: List of 3 names and their contact information (education/professional preferred)
6. Statement of Teaching Philosophy

Benefits

For information regarding our Benefits, click here.

EEO Statement

The University of North Texas System is firmly committed to equal opportunity and does not permit –and takes actions to prevent – discrimination, harassment (including sexual violence, domestic violence, dating violence and stalking), and retaliation on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in its application, employment practices, and facilities; nor permits race, color, national origin, religion, age, disability, veteran status, or sex discrimination and harassment in its admissions processes, and educational programs and activities. UNT System Administration promptly investigates complaints of discrimination, harassment, and related retaliation and takes remedial action when appropriate. System Administration also takes actions to prevent retaliation against individuals who oppose any form of harassment or discriminatory practice, file a charge or report, or testify, assist, or participate in a related investigation or proceeding.