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Peter Kwok Chan, Ph.D.

Peter Kwok Chan, Ph.D.

Peter Kwok Chan, Ph.D.

Associate Professor
he/him

chan.179@osu.edu

124 Hayes Hall
108 North Oval Mall
Columbus OH 43210

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Areas of Expertise

  • Visual Communication Design
  • Brand Identity Design
  • Design Strategy
  • Design Processes
  • Information Design
  • Packaging Design
  • Photo-Graphic
  • Artists’ Book Design

Education

  • PhD, Art Education, The Ohio State University
  • MFA, Graphic Design, Rhode Island School of Design
  • BFA, Visual Communication Design, Minneapolis College of Art and Design
  • DPS, Hong Kong Polytechnic University/Hong Kong Packaging Council

Select Recognition

  • Keynote Speaker, Livelihood, Wisdom and Design Future International Conference, School of Design, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. 2023
  • Design Consultant, Center for Ethics and Human Values. 2016-Present
  • Design Advisor, CampusParc at The Ohio State University. 2015-Present 
  • Visiting Scholar, The School of Design, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. 2014-Present

Current CV [pdf] Google Scholar Research Gate


Dr. Chan’s research focuses on Collaborative Design and Brand Design, exploring methods, techniques, and approaches that design students utilize to delve into, interpret, and apply emotion-driven mindsets to strategic design problems. His teaching methodology integrates Design Thinking and Design Doing within a brand design pyramid framework. Design Thinking employs human-centered perspectives to tackle complex problems through conceptual and iterative processes, contextualized within the study of people, objects, spaces, messages, and services. This approach fosters empathetic understanding, discovery of insights, identification of opportunities, exploration of concepts, and framing of innovative solutions. Design Doing employs visual and tangible procedures to facilitate creative analysis, translating inspiration into implementation, and transforming design intent into real-life actions. It utilizes tools, technologies, skills, and materials in the visualization and prototyping processes to communicate, document, and evaluate concepts and system models effectively.

His creative work has garnered recognition from esteemed organizations such as AIGA, Columbus Society of Communicating Arts (CSCA), Communication Arts, CA Interactive, HOW, IDEA, IDSA, Print, and Typography. He has served as a design advisor for numerous for-profit, nonprofit, and academic groups, including American Electric Power Company, CampusParc at OSU, Center for Ethics and Human Values at OSU, Central Ohio Diabetes Association, College of Public Health at OSU, Color Marketing Group, Columbus Dance Theatre, Columbus Museum of Art, Dublin Arts Council, Friends of Lower Olentangy River Watershed (FLOW), Glass Axis, Hawk Galleries, Honda of America Performance Manufacturing Center, ID Design Innovation Journal, Jewish Family Service of Columbus, Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Ohio State News, Opera Columbus, OSU Center for Automotive Research and Intelligent Transportation, OSU College of Medicine and Public Health (Department of Internal Medicine), OSU Digital Union, OSU TechPartner, Procter and Gamble Company, SonicRim, Teaching Artist Journal, The Columbus Dispatch, The Supreme Court of Ohio, and WOSU Media Company.

Active Community and University Service and Leadership

  • Communications and Visual Identity Committee
  • Peer Review and Teaching Committee 
  • Promotion and Tenure Committee 
  • Visual Communication Design Major Committee 
  • Columbus Society of Communicating Arts Representative

Selected Publications

  • Chan, P.K., McCorkle, B., and Murteza, N.D. (2023) Taller than the trees: Growing a biophilic sensibility in a photo-graphic design studio course, in De Sainz Molestina, D., Galluzzo, L., Rizzo, F., Spallazzo, D. (eds.), IASDR 2023: Life-Changing Design, 9-13 October, Milan, Italy. https://doi.org/10.21606/iasdr.2023.731
  • Colton, Z. A., Stanek, J., Liles, S. M., Baker, C., Barnard-Kirk, T., Chan, P. K., McCorkle, B., Quinn, G. P., Shen, Y., Theroux, C. I., Creary, S. E., Nahata, L., Study protocol for FUTURES: testing a web-based reproductive health education program for adolescent and young adult males with sickle cell disease. PLOS ONE (an inclusive journal community working together to advance science for the benefit of society, now and in the future). 2023. PONE-D-23-11883, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0289039 
  • Chan, P. K., McCorkle, B., Livingston, R., The Food Futures Teaching Cluster: Food Culture, Visual Communication Design, and Collaboration. Cumulus Roma 2021: Design Culture(s), Conference Proceeding, Sapienza University of Rome, June 8-11, 2021. Theme: Design Culture (of) Life, page 1337 - https://cumulusroma2020.org/proceedings/
  • Chan, P. K., McCorkle, B., The Humane Technologies Collaborative: An overview of the “Provocation, Making, Reflection” process. Cumulus Paris 2018 - To Get There: Designing together, Parisian Schools of Art and Design, Paris, France: Boulle, Duperré, Estienne, and Ensaama, April 11 - 13, 2018. Conference Proceeding, page 422-441 - https://cumulusassociation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/CumulusConferenceProceedings_Paris2018_Pages-compressed.pdf 
  • Chan, P. K., Gill, C., Duncan E., Defining the Essence of Place: A collaborative approach to develop a branded manufacturing workplace environment, DesignEd Asia 2015 (http://www.designedasia.com/), School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. December 1-2, 2015.
  • Chan, P. K., Lai, M., Empathy in Design: A health care service design collaborative workshop, 6th International Conference on Design & Emotion. London, UK, September 2012. 
  • Chan, P. K., Melsop, S., Gill, C., Re-envisioning a Design Curriculum, DesignEd Asia 2010, School of Design, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, December 2010.
  • Chan, P. K., Visual Communication Design for E-Learning: An Art Education web-based online course design, The International Journal of Learning, Vol. 13, No. 12, June 2007. Common Ground Publishing Pty Ltd.: Melbourne, Australia. ISSN 1447-9494 (print), 1447-9540 (online).
  • Chan, P. K., Teaching Branding through Packaging Design in an Undergraduate Course, AIGA Education Conference: IntentContent, Nashville, Tennessee. 2007.
  • Chan, P. K., Sanders B-N. E., Exploring, Interpreting, and Applying Emotional-Driven Design in Brand Identity Development: A design student case study, Fourth International Conference on Design and Emotion Proceedings, Ankara, Turkey. 2004.

Selected Exhibitions

  • A Tree Grows on Campus (A Sustainability Ingredient) posters exhibition and design lecture. Making Lemonade, an online event presented by the Department of Design faculty and the Urban Arts Space. October 26, 2020.
  • Jiangnan, the Poetic Habitat—Jiangnan Context, an international poster exhibition and design competition. The organizers included the Jiangnan University School of Design, School of Digital Media, and Jiangnan Cultural Research Institute. The exhibition was held at the School of Design, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China. October 27 - November 10, 2019. Chan’s poster was also published in the exhibition’s printed book.
  • Food Futures, Design+Comparative Studies Class Teaching Cluster posters, an online Livable Futures exhibition, October 1, 2019. https://livablefuturesnow.org/blog/2019/9/17/food-futures-design-comparative-studies-class-teaching-cluster
  • Local and Sustainable Food posters exhibition at the On Food and Faith Conference, held at The Methodist Theological School in Ohio. This exhibition was funded by OSU inFACT. Among the attendees was former Vice President Al Gore. May 2019.
  • Local and Sustainable Food posters exhibition, during the opening weekend of Ann Carlson, The Symphonic Body/Food performance at the Mershon Auditorium, Wexner Center for the Arts, April 12-14, 2019.
  • Water-Wellness-Wellbeing posters exhibition at the Ohio State Faculty Club Grand Lounge. World Water Day Research Presentation/Conference, March 23, 2018.
  • AN OPEN CONVERSATION, Transformed, Design Through Research exhibition, The Urban Arts Space, September 2016.
  • Storytelling Methodologies for Stereoscopic 360° Virtual Reality Filmmaking poster was exhibited at The Ohio State University International Scholar Research Exposition. This poster design was collaborated with design professors Wooksang Chang and Maria Palazzi (Director of ACCAD). Autumn 2015.
  • BIGG: Breakthrough Ideas in Global Glass. The Ohio State University Urban Arts Space and Hawk Galleries, Columbus, Ohio from July 10 through October 10, and SOFA Chicago, Illinois from November 5 through 8, 2008.

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