Luiza Dale is a graphic designer and teacher based in Richmond, VA. Her work explores visual representation that pushes against norms of clarity and the combination of theater and graphic design. Luiza designs independently and as part of the studio The Aliens. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. This fall: Quick Plays at Envelope with Cassie Works, Talk Shop: Working from Earth at Ours, and an essay about Mary Vieira for Amalgam coming soon. Favorite breakfast is oatmeal.

Read more... 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 status quo. She presented this research at Typography Theory Practice in Leeds and Easy Lessoning in New York. The work later became an essay published by are.na and edited by Meg Miller in the summer of 2025.

As it turned out, it wasn’t really about footnotes themselves but about convention. So much of design defines how we live and we take that for granted. Luiza is interested in theater, and pairing it with her teaching and graphic design, as a tool to challenge normative scripts, feel alive, moved, and more connected to our bodies and each other. She’s explored these ideas through classes like The Play Class at The Design Theater, It’s telling how telling a telling can be at the Yale Norfolk School of Art, and Just My Type at VCU. Visit Luiza’s Teaching Portal to learn more.

Older stuff... Luiza ran the independent publishing practice Quickbooks from 2019 to 2024 and was graphic designer in residence at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) from 2024 to 2025. She 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. She has worked with Meta Open Arts, Porto Rocha, Other Means, Outdoor Voices, Playlab Inc., Clog, and Imprint Projects. Luiza holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art. Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Last updated on September 1, 2025.