A bit about your instructor
My name is Daniel; or you can call me Dan or Danny—calling me Professor McCafferty is not necessary but you can if it makes you more comfortable. My pronouns are he, him.
I am of Scottish and Irish heritage. Grandparents who I never knew immigrated to Canada from Scotland and Ireland in the early 20th Century. I do consider myself to be from Winnipeg but I've lived in several other places—born in Ottawa, moved to Winnipeg for Grade 10, moved to Halifax for Art School, to Toronto for work, to Raleigh North Carolina for more school, back to Toronto, then to Windsor/Detroit to teach at a University, and finally, back to Winnipeg.
I am a graphic designer and media artist. I received my BFA-Honours in Communication Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (which is where I learned to LOVE typography, and decided that I wanted to work with people who loved type as much as I did); then I worked in Toronto as a designer at two highly-awarded, well-respected design studios (Gottschalk+Ash, Q-30 Design). I earned my Master’s Degree from North Carolina State University in Raleigh—a very highly respected design program, consistently ranking in the top five for design schools in North America. I’ve been involved with independent design collectives who’ve produced projects for exhibitions and galleries. I’ve taught design at OCAD-U in Toronto and at Wayne State University in Detroit.
Besides design and typography, music is a big thing for me—I spent a big part of my life playing in bands and touring and making records, tapes, t-shirts, posters, etc. This is actually how I found out about design. Today I am into weird, experimental music, mostly. I'm also into weird field recordings. I am also into a weird sub-genre of metal, called doom drone metal—the band Sunn))) is an example of this...check them out, but maybe talk to me about it first, if you don't know them. I like learning about and hearing new music, so please, let me know what you're listening to! Maybe we could make a class playlist on Spotify! I also like to write code to make things. I'm into "creative coding" and would love to talk about some of that if you're interested. I started a coding club for students here at SoA. It is no longer running but if you're interested in starting it up again, let me know.
I have a daughter in Grade 4 who loves Gacha Life, Minecraft and reading, and a partner who has an art / furniture studio downtown and runs the woodshop here. I am a cis white male settler. Learning to understand and to see the privilege that this affords me every day in this world, in my position as a teacher, is something I am working on. Typography and design (and art, generally speaking) are rooted in colonial, western ways of understanding the world. I feel it is my responsibility as a teacher to undo of this in my teaching, and in my presentation of typography. I think we are all extremely fortunate to be here. I think we all want different things out of this learning experience, and so part of my goal in this class is to help you with that.
As far as design and typography are concerned, imo, there has never been a more interesting or exciting time to be into design and typography. There are so many ways to be a designer in the world today, and so many incredible, thoughtful, progressive people practicing as designers. I will share some of the ones I feel like you need to know about. Design is a demanding and competitive field. Lots of people want to be designers these days. Designers are expected to know a lot about a lot of things, and do a lot, usually because they are detail oriented, or because they work for people who expect this and are paying for it. This class can't teach you everything about type. In order to really grow during your time in art and design school, there is a significant amount of work that you need to do on your own, in a self-initiated way. There is an expectation that you do some of this learning on your own. I will point you to some of the things that will build your awareness of what people are doing and talking about today, in contemporary design practice.
I will have "Office" Hours on Zoom, every week, on Wednesday, from 12–1pm. This time may change and I'll send out a notification if it does. Links to these Zoom meetings will be posted and linked on this site.
Here are some ways to get ahold of me.