Terry Dobson, MFA
Professor, Department of Design
Video Introduction
Terry Dobson, MFA, is a Professor in the Department of Design at Azusa Pacific University. Dobson’s career as a theme park designer for Walt Disney Imagineering began after earning an MFA in Graphic Design from Yale University. His creative roles in Show Design, Concept Design, and ultimately as a Creative Director at Disney for more than two decades won him a Themed Entertainment Industry Award (THEA) with Walt Disney Imagineering; an Interactive Academy Award with Disney Interactive Studios; and four online gaming awards with Disney Parks and Resorts Online. Dobson was inaugurated into Disney Inventors’ Hall of Fame, and awarded a patent for design and technological innovation for Disney’s first massively multiplayer online theme park game, Virtual Magic Kingdom. As a design educator and scholar, Dobson curates art gallery exhibitions to raise awareness for issues of social injustice, and his research into the making of symbolic visual meaning has been published in the inaugural issue of the design educator’s journal, Dialectic.
Published Scholarship Journal Articles
March 2020, The International Journal of Art & Design Education
Feb 2017, Dialectic, Vol. 1, Issue 1: Design educator’s journal by the AIGA: Professional Association of Designers
Oct 2015, The International Journal of Designed Objects
Education
- MFA, Graphic Design, Yale University School of Art
- BFA, Graphic Design (First-Class Honors), University of Central Lancashire
Academic Area
- School of the Arts
Expertise
- History of Signs, Symbols, & Icons
- Social Justice & Ethical Issues in Design
- Typographic Design and Experimental Typography
- Entertainment Design & Visual Storytelling
Courses Taught
- GE 100 – First Year Seminar
- DSGN 281 – Graphic Design I
- DSGN 283 – Graphic Design II
- DSGN 430 – Applied Design
- DSGN 450 – Portfolio
- DSGN 475 – Design Internship
- DSGN 481 – Graphic Design IV