courses + workshops — Anna Schum-Houck

Teaching art and design is an opportunity to share my passion for learning and encourage curiosity.

It is inspiring, challenging and rewarding to guide the next generation of designers. It aligns directly with my own creative practice as I challenge myself to learn new things, experiment with different media and enhance curriculum through climate design research and design history.

I have taught courses at Syracuse University, Rochester Institute of Technology and guest lectured at University of Rochester along with being an club night facilitator and instructor at Wheel & Slab Pottery Studio.

Starting in August 2026, I will be teaching at UNC-Charlotte as a lecturer in graphic design.

I am excited to bring my unique perspective from studying abroad in England and Denmark as well as my interests for interdisciplinary collaboration, handcrafted work, climate design and design history into the classroom.

Courses I’ve Taught

- Syracuse University S.I Newhouse School of Public Communication | Visual Communication 270: Introduction to Graphic Design
- Rochester Institute of Technology School of Design | IDEA 150 Graphic Design for Non-Majors and GRDE 106 Studio I
- These courses include basic introduction to visual communication through lectures and studio projects
- Topics include design thinking methodologies and processes, visual organization, hierarchy principles, color theory and application, basic typography, professionalism and ethics.
- Assignments explore aspects of graphic imagery, hierarchy, typography, and layout.
- Rochester Institute of Technology School of Design | Design Systems I (third year) and Design Systems II (fourth year)
- These are consecutive courses that build upon each other
- Focusing on developing problem-solving methods to create unified and effective design systems through research, methodology, strategy and concept generation
- Rochester Institute of Technology School of Design | Graphic Design Capstone
- This course demonstrates the culmination of students’ working knowledge of graphic design through a comprehensive capstone project.
- While holding a visiting lecturer position from Fall 2023-Spring 2025, I also advised 10 Graphic Design student projects per semester
- I have assisted with organizing and installing the Capstone exhibition with the students during Spring 2023, Spring 2024 and Spring 2025
- Independent study course for a fourth year student that further explored editorial and layout design for print based media.
- This course focused on interior page design within books, illustration and cover elements as well as a short publication with production ready files ready for print.
- Rochester Institute of Technology School of Art | FDTN 111 Drawing I
- This course is an introduction to the visualization of form, thought, and expression through the drawing process and is the first of two sequential courses that are the foundation of the drawing curriculum in the College of Art and Design.
- Projects included Perspective, Still Life Drawing, Figure Drawing and Self-Portraits
- Collaborative Class Sketchbook Project: Pass the Sketchbook Around
University of Rochester School of Arts & Sciences | Digital Media Studies
- A series of five guest lectures (1 hour and 15 min. each) which includes a brief introduction of graphic design and different topics: hierarchy, typography and composition as well as an introduction to Adobe Illustrator to create a call to action poster based upon their semester theme.
- The students completed a 11 by 17 poster which concluded with a formal critique.
- As a club night facilitator and instructor for workshops at Wheel & Slab, I assist with various wheel thrown and hand built projects
- I’m excited to share techniques with others and inspire there creative endeavors while teaching them

"Anna demonstrates an admirable balance between professionalism and authenticity. She prioritizes student wellbeing alongside challenging coursework, maintaining reasonable yet firm expectations that foster both growth and confidence.

Her courses were consistently engaging and enjoyable to participate in, creating an environment where learning felt both rigorous and rewarding."

- Maxwell Stromfeld | RIT Graphic Design Student 2025

Presentations + Workshops

Rochester Institute of Technology | Fall 2024
- For this workshop, I lectured about how to create a unique logo followed by a sketching activity where students forced two random images together to create a logo.
- Each student brought in a collection of printed images to use; creating a randomized collection of food, objects and things. The goal was to create something fast, random and unique by using tracing paper and a sharpie to trace on top of a selected image.
- This helped spark inspirational methods to start thinking outside of the box. There are no right or wrong answers, it is purely about forcing combinations together to see what can happen when we embrace the unknown.
Rochester Institute of Technology | Fall 2023 and Fall 2024
- This workshop helped students explore more physical processes within print making by using gelli-plates, hand carved stamps, legos, and ink to create art.
- This reinforced the exploration and experimentation to inspire our creative process and think in new ways.
Rochester Institute of Technology | Fall 2023
- Every year the RIT graphic design department hosts graphic design week where class sessions are replaced with conferencelike activities and lectures.
- For this workshop, I prepared a lecture about color theory and followed it with a collage activity. Students demonstrated what they learned by creating collages within a time limit that followed color theory prompts.
- This gave them the opportunity to explore with physical methods in quick explorations without overthinking. The goal was to further their understanding of successful color pairings, inspire new ways of exploration and encourage them to think about the emotion of color within compositions.
Rochester Institute of Technology | Spring 2025
- The goal of this workshop was to improve our physical skills while supporting the Rochester Contemporary Art Center's (RoCo) Annual 6by6 fundraiser within Graphic Design 106 Studio I course. This workshop explored creating compositions in 6in by 6in squares using physical materials that focused on type, lines and collage.
- Students gained skills in exact-o cutting, measuring, color theory and exploration of compositions. Students were given the opportunity to donate their work to the exhibition where it would be placed for sale with all proceeds going towards RoCo.
Rochester Institute of Technology | Fall 2023 | 2 Class Sessions
- Over the course of two class sessions (one week) in Graphic Design 421 Design Systems II course, we explored the importance of patterns within brand identities and how they can be used to bring a system to life. The first day focused on a lecture about patterns specifically within brands as well as a hands-on activity to make continuous patterns on one sheet of paper.
- For the second class, we focused on physical techniques creating patterns with hand carved stamps, collage materials and ink. This inspired students to think in new ways by experimenting with new materials.

Foundations Drawing 1

This course is an introduction to the visualization of form, thought, and expression through the drawing process and is the first of two sequential courses that are the foundation of the drawing curriculum in the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) College of Art and Design.

Major Projects included: Still Life, Fabric, Figure Drawing, and Self-Portraits

Rochester Institute of Technology | Fall 2025