New Faculty Announcement: Aggie Toppins

The Sam Fox School is pleased to announce that Aggie Toppins will join the faculty in fall 2020 as an associate professor of communication design and chair of undergraduate design.

Toppins comes to the Sam Fox School from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where she is an associate professor of graphic design and head of the Department of Art. She earned a BS in Design from the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning and an MFA in Graphic Design with a Certificate in the College Teaching of Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She began her design career in client-based service, spending a decade working for companies that specialized in environmental graphics, printed communication, brand identities, and human-centered design.

In her current research and studio work, Toppins reflects on design as a discourse of power, with a focus on signs and the negotiability of meaning. She studies the generative links between contemporary practices and historical ideas. In her design practice, she collaborates with civic organizations and cultural institutions to design communications for positive social impact; past partner organizations include Causeway, the Innovation District of Chattanooga, Glass House Collective, and C&R Press. Additionally, she maintains an independent studio practice focused largely on artist publications and multiples, and self-publishes a zine series called Critical Theory Cocktails, among other limited-edition titles.