Celeste Martin

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Bio

Celeste Martin is a design researcher, educator, Associate Professor in Communication Design and Dean of the Ian Gillespie Faculty of Design and Dynamic Media. She received her BFA and MFA in Design from the University of Iowa.

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Research Interests

Celeste's practice examines forms of written language and the spaces and expressions of typographic texts, investigating the mechanisms of their visuality and the ways in which they function, practically and theoretically, in different mediums and contexts. Her work has been involved with the translation and transaction of manuscripts into typographic texts, particularly those of writer Jorge Luis Borges. She explores these as research tools of genetic criticism, the study of a writer’s creative/compositional process, and as autonomous aesthetic objects. A fundamental aspect of communication design, translation between semiotic systems is a core element of this work. It involves a focused material exploration in the setting of type in relation to calligraphy that raises questions on the nature of graphic translation, adaptation and reproduction. She has shared her work through workshops, book chapters, and panels, presentations and papers at national and international conferences. Her most recent book, Cuadernos & Conferencias gathers previously unpublished manuscripts of Borges's notes, expanding the author’s oeuvre to include his contributions as lecturer and public speaker.