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. She is Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University. This summer: Luiza is teaching Theater for Beginners at Ours (May–June) and is a writer-in-residence at Writing Space (May–August).

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 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. She’s explored this through classes like 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 ran the indepent publishing practice Quickbooks from 2019 to 2024 and was graphic designer in residence at the Institute for Studies on Latin American Art (ISLAA) in 2024 and 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.

Last updated on May 12, 2025. Full moon in Scorpio.