Guglielmo Rossi

Mr Guglielmo Rossi BA, MA

Programme Leader for BA/HND Graphic& Digital Design

Guglielmo Rossi is a graphic designer and educator. His teaching and design practice are inspired by everyday culture and popular history, and his research interests meet at the intersection of publishing, technology, politics and subcultures - with a focus on the interplay of politics and print, and on the social and technological context surrounding the production of publishing.

Guglielmo currently co-teaches Design Thinking at stage 2 and Interdisciplinary Design and Professional Portfolio Practice at stage 3. He previously worked as an Associate Lecturer teaching Contextual Studies (BA Graphic Design) at the University of East London and is an Associate Lecturer at the University of the Arts.

Guglielmo studied History of Design at the Royal College of Art and V&A Museum. His MA thesis on radical publishing is currently being developed towards publication in 2021. Prior to that, Guglielmo trained as a graphic design at Central Saint Martins and worked as a graphic designer across print, exhibition and environmental design projects - independently and in design agencies in London and NYC. His work includes long term collaborations with the multidisciplinary collective The Decorators, the design of the publication series Urban Pamphleteer, and of the ‘Murty Classical Library of India’ - the multi-lingual books series published by Harvard University Press and designed with Rathna Ramanathan at M9Design.

Recent publications

  • ‘The Case for Collective Control: The Leveller magazine and publishing as a prefigurative political form’, book chapter in Script, Print, Letterforms (Oxford: Peter Lang, forthcoming 2021)
  • 'You must live your politics: East London Big Flame’s radical approach to publishing and design [working title]', (MayDay Rooms pamphlet series, forthcoming 2021)
  • ‘From Technological Sublime to Metropolitan Vernacular: Notes towards a Historiography of neon signs’, in Vol. 1, V&A/RCA, 2018
  • ‘The Politics of Herbaceous Type: William Morris’s designs of initials, borders and title pages for the Kelmscott press, and part of the Print & Drawings Department at the V&A’, online article for Unmaking Things, 2017.

Presentations

  • ‘Let a thousand A4 pages bloom: the newsletter form past and present! on Zoom, as part of the MayDay Rooms events programme, February 2021
  • ‘Publishing as a Prefigurative Political Form: Theory and Practice of Radical Publishing.’ Conference paper presented at Radical Sixties: aesthetic, politics and histories of solidarity. Brighton University, June 2019
  • ‘The Collective Production of Radical Politics in Print.’ Conference paper — Script, print, and letterforms in global contexts: the visual and the material. Birmingham City University, June 2018
  • ‘Community Organising and the Radical publishing of East London Big Flame.’ V&A/RCA Symposium, The Lydia and Manfred Gorvy Lecture Theatre, Victoria & Albert Museum, June 2018