ERIN WRIGHT

CHAIR/PROFESSOR OF GRAPHIC DESIGN:
Erin Wright earned his Master of Fine Arts with a concentration in Graphic Design and Illustration at the University of Arizona and his BFA in Graphic Design at Colorado State University. He has taught design at LSU, the University of Montevallo, and is currently a Professor of Design at the University of Alabama at Birmingham where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Art and Art History.

He has over 20 years of experience as a designer and teacher winning several local, regional, and national awards for design. Wright's work has been exhibited at the Society of Illustrators Museum in New York first as a student and then as an educator. Under the nom de guerre Asylum his work has appeared in nationally and internationally competitive design annuals and compendiums such as PRINT Regional Annual, Creativity 35, New Logo World (published in Tokyo), and American Corporate Identity (2004, 2005 and 2006). One of his logos was selected to be published in Kodansha Famous Schools Creative Art Course textbook published in Japan as an "example of excellent logo concept and execution."

Erin has also designed posters shown in competitions and exhibitions around the world including: Warsaw, Poland; Brno, the Czech Republic; Kyunggido, South Korea; the 10th and 11th International Biennials of the Poster in Mexico; the Mark X International Poster Invitational in the Republic of China; the Golden Bee 7 in Moscow, Russia; and the 56th Annual Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington Show in Washington, D.C.. He was asked by the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad to submit 5 posters to the "Sailing in Qingdao Poster Annual" as part of the celebrations leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games. He participated in the 15th, 16th and 17th editions of the Colorado International Invitational Poster Exhibition (CIIPE)-one of the premier poster exhibitions in the United States. He has also been awarded Honorable Mention at both the 2nd and 3rd International Socio-Political Poster Biennales in Auschwitz, Poland.

His posters are in several collections including the Robert Irwin archive at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles; "Fourth Block" International Triennale of Eco Posters in Kharkov, Ukraine; and The International Poster Collection at Colorado State University.

Erin has also won several Gold and Silver ADDY Awards. Recently, Erin was awarded 4 Gold and 2 Silver awards as well as Designer of the Year and also Illustrator of the Year at the Birmingham ADDY Awards. He also recently won 1 Gold and 3 Silvers at the 7th District Regional ADDY Awards.

He is a recipient of 2 Fellowship Grants, the most prestigious of grants awarded annually by the Alabama State Council on the Arts.