Luiza Dale (b. 1988, Rio de Janeiro) is a graphic designer and teacher based in Richmond, VA. Her work explores (1) visual representation that pushes against norms of clarity and (2) the combination of theater and graphic design. Luiza designs independently and as part of the studio The Aliens in addition to running Quickbooks. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University and graphic designer in residence at ISLAA.

For a while... Luiza has used the term Bad Design to define a way of working that questions “good design” standards set by people in power a long time ago. She spoke about this at Typographics 2024. Soon after, Luiza started compiling a design history of footnotes in order to understand how marginalia has been used to marginalize and point to alternative type hierarchies that challenge the single author perspective. There have been some public presentations of this work so far, including one at Typography Theory Practice in Leeds and another at Easy Lessoning in New York. Many exciting footnote examples point to multiple ideas happening at once on the page, leaving readers to decide where to go. Simultaneity challenges order and this is one of the reasons why Luiza is interested in studying live performance—a lens through which to think about graphic design as less controlled and more connected to how we live in the world, its chaos, and uncertainties. To explore this, she taught It’s telling how telling a telling can be at the Yale Norfolk School of Art in Summer 2023, and Just My Type at VCU in Fall 2024. Visit Luiza’s Teaching Portal to learn more.

Luiza has taught at the Yale School of Art, Parsons School of Design, and Rutgers Mason Gross School of the Arts. She has lectured and served as critic at a number of other universities including Boston University, Columbia GSAPP, Harvard GSD, New York University, Pratt Institute, and Wesleyan. Luiza has worked with Meta Open Arts, Porto Rocha, Other Means, Outdoor Voices, Playlab Inc., Clog, and Imprint Projects. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art where she was awarded the Charles Sawyer Prize in 2021.

Last updated on March 12, 2025. Spring break, a Wednesday, and on a train to New Haven.