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  • Rethink Cincy
Bennett Creative
  • Work
  • Teaching
  • Résumé
  • Recs
  • Contact
  • Links
  • About
  • Opportunities
  • Rethink Cincy

Teaching Philosophy

I embrace experimental teaching methods, blending play, emerging technology, and hands-on exploration to engage students in design. Whether through AI, interactive experiences, or unconventional tools like balloon animals, I push boundaries to spark curiosity and creative problem-solving. My classroom is a space for risk-taking, collaboration, and discovery, where students develop their voices and embrace design as a powerful force for innovation.

Teaching Methods

  • Avant-garde ideation (e.g., blind contour drawing, Opposite Day critique, upside-down critique, wrong-hand drawing, etc.)

  • Gamified learning (e.g., Vocab Jeopardy)

  • Flipped classroom

  • Project-based learning

What Students Have to Say

For student opinions, feel free to check out my RateMyProfessor profile.

 

Teaching Experience

  • Instructor: Website Design Lab - ArtsConnect, 2025

  • Instructor: Mobile App Design Lab - ArtsConnect, 2025

  • Instructor: Drawing Class - Plaza Artist Materials, 2025

  • Adjunct Professor: Interaction Design 2 (CODE3011) - University of Cincinnati, 2025

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor: Design Aesthetics 2 (CODE1110) - University of Cincinnati, 2025

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor: Computer Graphics for Non-Majors (CMDS1085) - University of Cincinnati, 2024

  • Adjunct Professor: Design Drawing (CODE1000) - University of Cincinnati, 2024

  • Assistant Adjunct Professor: Design Aesthetics 1 (CODE1010) - University of Cincinnati, 2024

  • Adjunct Professor: Design Aesthetics 3: Computational Aesthetics (CODE2012) - University of Cincinnati, 2022

  • Instructor: Graphic Design Summer Camp - Digital Media Academy at Harvard University, 2017

  • Instructor: Graphic Design Summer Camp - Digital Media Academy at Southern Plano University, 2016

  • Facilitator: “No Fluff: Designing for Visual Economy, Relevance, & Utility in a Graphically Inundated World” (original workshop) - Harvard University, 2016

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant: Design Thinking & Problem Solving (DSGN1070) - University of Cincinnati, 2016

  • Graduate Teaching Assistant: Communication Design for Professional Practice (GRCD1030) - University of Cincinnati, 2015, 2016

Photos from Class

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Student Work: Design Aesthetics 1 (CODE1010)

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to critical seeing and thinking in design aesthetics. With a focus on the core principles of order and structure, emphasis is placed on the theoretical and strategic organization of form and visual composition.

 

Final project in Design Aesthetics 1 (taught at UC Blue Ash)

Line and shape study in Design Aesthetics 1

Line and shape study in Design Aesthetics 1

Line and shape study in Design Aesthetics 1

Simultaneous contrast illusion study in Design Aesthetics 1

Simultaneous contrast illusion study in Design Aesthetics 1

Simultaneous contrast illusion study in Design Aesthetics 1

 

Student Work: Design Aesthetics 2 (CODE1110)

Design Aesthetics 2 enhances the student’s strategic organization of form theory, visual composition, and communication design. The focus of the course strengthens the core principles of order, structure, and visual language design as related to the discipline of communication design uniting theory to application.

 

Haiku booklet design in Design Aesthetics 2 (taught at UC Blue Ash)

Form analysis image in Design Aesthetics 2

Form analysis process image in Design Aesthetics 2

Form analysis process image (with visible construction lines) in Design Aesthetics 2

 

Student Work: Design Aesthetics 3 - Computational Aesthetics (CODE2012)

The focus of the course addresses core principles of interface design, simple interactivity, user-interface systems, object properties/states, affordance and feedback, and visual qualities. Emphasis is placed on managing multiple elements of a system in dynamic, animated environments.

 

Demo of clickable prototype in Design Aesthetics 3

Code snippet associated with this demo in Design Aesthetics 3

An image a student generated using p5.js in Design Aesthetics 3

An image a student generated using p5.js in Design Aesthetics 3

An image a student generated using p5.js in Design Aesthetics 3

 

Student Work: Design Drawing (CODE1000)

The emphasis of the course includes an introduction to technical, hand, and digital drawings. Applying aesthetic principles for the communication of conceptual ideas and image articulation, the purpose of this course is to provide the fundamental basis for design thinking, graphic translation and symbolic representation of images in a harmonic system of visual form.

 

Analytical study in Design Drawing

Line articulation study in Design Drawing

Light and shade study in Design Drawing

Icon study in Design Drawing

Graphic translation study in Design Drawing

 

Analytical study in Design Drawing

Light and shade study in Design Drawing

Icon study in Design Drawing

Line articulation study in Design Drawing

Graphic translation study in Design Drawing

 

Analytical study in Design Drawing

Line articulation study in Design Drawing

Light and shade study in Design Drawing

Icon study in Design Drawing

Graphic translation study in Design Drawing

 

Two-point perspective study in Design Drawing

Orthographic study in Design Drawing

Isometric study in Design Drawing