James Corazzo (2022) – bio

James Corazzo is an award-winning graphic design educator with over twenty years’ experience teaching higher education in further education colleges and universities. He started as a part-time teacher while working as a book designer. In 2007, James swapped designing ‘things’ for designing ‘learning’ full-time. Since then, he has worked as a Course Leader, Senior Lecturer, and Principal Lecturer in Graphic Design. In 2015, he became the Teaching and Learning Lead for the Department of Art and Design at Sheffield Hallam University.

James approaches graphic design education and teaching as the act of making things possible, and not taking things for granted. He combines creativity with compassion to design learning as an unfolding excursion from the familiar to the unfamiliar. He is the co-founder of the Subject Association Graphic Design Educators’ Network.

James channels his own uneven higher education experiences to shape compelling, compassionate and critical encounters with design. He approaches graphic design education and teaching as the act of making things possible, and not taking things for granted. Challenging the normative practices of design education in the process – whether it’s through democratising the crit to give voice and space to students or creating reflexive tools for students to ‘see’ the domains in which they practice. He combines care, creativity, and organisational flair to make all students active protagonists in an unfolding excursion from the familiar to the unfamiliar. These approaches have led to a sustained and outstanding impact on student experience and outcomes.

As Teaching and Learning Lead, James supports his colleagues by combining the requirements of day-to-day policies with playful encounters that examine education through the lens of risk, performance, and realness. Inspired by the idea that networks can enable individuals to possess qualities and capacities beyond their individual competence, James co-founded a Subject Association in 2014 – the Graphic Design Educators’ Network (GDEN) – taking a leading role in growing the network to over 500 members. Since 2015, GDEN events and conferences have hosted over 850 attendees from 75 different institutions, representing over 100 courses to advance graphic design education. James uses creativity and reflexivity to ask big questions of design and design education in search of just, equitable and transformative futures.