James Grady

James Grady

Assistant Professor of Art, Graphic Design; BU Spark! Creative Director; Principal, Design Axl

James Grady is a designer and educator with over two decades of broad-based experience. He is an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Boston University and Principal of Design Axl, a graphic design consultancy with clients spanning the globe. James has been teaching undergraduate and graduate Graphic Design students at Boston University since 2017. He also co-teaches Spark! Product Innovation at BU’s Center for Data Sciences. James is the BU Spark! Creative Director. He has a passion for interdisciplinary cross-college collaboration and has worked with many different Colleges at BU. James recently co-authored a grant from Digital Learning & Innovation to bring an artist in residence to work with students to engage in creative research at BU School of Visual Arts, BU School of Theatre, and Faculty of Computing & Data Science.

Before BU James co-taught Information Design at MIT, and had senior roles at kor group, a strategic branding agency in Boston, and Fathom Information Design, leading projects for clients such as GE, Google, Nike, Samsung, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Clinton Foundation, The Robin Hood Foundation, World Bank, and Volkswagen. James has lectured at numerous Universities and Conferences such as metaLAB Beautiful Data at Harvard University, Visualized in New York City, and Themed Entertainment Association SATE conference at Carnegie Mellon University.

James received his Master of Fine Arts at the Rhode Island School of Design in Graphic Design, with Honors, and his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, College of Visual and Performing Arts in Digital Media.

James’ interdisciplinary approach informs his creative research, teaching, and practice. As an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Boston University, James has a unique testing ground to develop new ideas and share them with young, engaged students eager to push the boundaries of what design can do.

For more on James, visit jamesjgrady.com, profgrady.com, axl.design

Creative Works