Jessica Barness

bio

Jessica Barness is a design scholar and a scholarly designer. Through her research, she investigates connections among and within design systems, ranging from sensory media to publication histories, often found at the edges of design discourse. She is a Professor of Visual Communication Design at Kent State University and serves as Co-chair and Director of Research Initiatives for Design Incubation.

Barness has published articles in peer-reviewed journals such as The Design Journal, Design and Culture, MATLIT: Materialidades da Literatura, and Dialectic. She has presented work at venues hosted by organizations such as AIGA, Design History Society, FILE Electronic Language Festival, HASTAC, and ICDHS. Her creative endeavors have garnered awards from entities such as the College Book Art Association and the STA 100. She is a recipient (with collaborator Amy Papaelias) of the Design Incubation Educators Communication Design Award in the category of Scholarship: Published Research.

She has an MFA in Design with a graduate minor in Writing Studies from the University of Minnesota, and a BA and MA in Studio Art from the University of Northern Iowa. Previously, she was a designer and researcher with Conway+Schulte Architects in Minneapolis, MN, and practiced professionally as a senior product designer and design development manager in Chicago, IL.