Staff & Faculty Directory
John De Santis
Adjunct Assistant Professor; Digital Art & Design, School of Architecture & Design
Education Credentials: B.F.A.
Expertise: Design History, History of Art and Technology, Communication Design, Typography, Visual Identity, Creative Direction, Curriculum Development, Online and Immersive Learning, Branding, Professional Practice, Portfolio Development
Joined New York Tech: 2024
John De Santis, creative director, design historian, and educator, is an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Digital Art and Design.
At New York Tech, he developed complete undergraduate courses in History of Design and Technology I and II and the graduate course History of Art and Technology. He built these courses from the ground up, creating their instructional content and course materials. His teaching at New York Tech also includes Design Principles and Visual Identity.
De Santis has developed and taught more than 100 undergraduate and graduate courses across New York Tech, Pratt Institute, Parsons School of Design, St. John’s University, and CUNY. His teaching spans design history, typography, communication design, professional practice, and portfolio development and includes classroom, online, and hybrid formats. At Parsons, his online design history course served as a benchmark for faculty training in Canvas course development. As an Open Educational Resources Fellow at CUNY, he developed typography curriculum and OpenLab course templates for faculty use.
At Pratt, his initiatives include Pratt Ink, the 14th Street Creative Corridor, exhibitions with Blick Art Materials, and the grant-supported Type Talks lecture series. These projects connect design education with professional practice and public audiences.
His professional experience includes creative direction at Webb Communications, art direction for the United Nations, and editorial work for Scientific American, Architectural Record, Fortune, and Forbes. He holds a B.F.A. in graphic design from the School of Visual Arts.
- Rome Through Design: New York City — Development of a course examining typography, publishing and visual culture through field investigations, historical research and studio projects.
- Pratt Ink — Development of a studio initiative connecting design education with professional client work and institutional partnerships.
- 14th Street Creative Corridor — Conceived and directed a neighborhood initiative engaging students in branding, exhibitions, environmental graphics and public installations.
- Pratt × Blick — Development and creative direction of student exhibitions in partnership with Blick Art Materials.
- Pratt Libraries and Exhibitions — Student projects addressing exhibition promotion, motion graphics, environmental graphics and visitor experience.
- Type Talks — Founder and organizer of an international design lecture series supported by a Pratt Institute DEI Research Seed Grant.
- AI Study Companion, Parsons School of Design — Development and testing of a course-specific study companion through The New School’s AI Course Study Companion Pilot.
- Design History and Technology, New York Tech — Complete development of undergraduate and graduate history courses, including original instructional content and course materials.
- ARTG 201 Design Principles
- History of Design and Technology I
- Visual Identity
- ARTH 601 History of Art and Technology
- History of Design and Technology II