Department of Design Professor Doug Thomas Discusses His BYU Education, Career in Design and the Importance of Typography
Department of Design professor Douglas Thomas is all about words and their meanings. His research focuses on how the way words are displayed (through both font and typeset) can impact what they represent and how their meaning is received. In the Q&A below, Thomas discusses his research, teaching philosophy and faith, and offers advice for current design students.
Q: What Inspired You to Study Design?
Thomas: I’ve always had something artistic in my interest and outlook. My parents encouraged my drawing, painting and making, although I don’t think I knew that it was something that could be applied to design until I was older. What inspired me to take my artistic talents into a design field was a high school teacher who encouraged me to participate in our high school yearbook. That spurred me on to study graphic design as an undergraduate and then continue with it afterwards.
Q: Your Work Explores “The Nexus of Typography, Design, and Culture, Especially in User Experience Design, Publication Design and Branding.” What Do You Enjoy About These?
Thomas: In my research and teaching, I care a lot about typography: what words mean and how those words are influenced by the way that we display them. That can flow from a variety of different mediums because at the heart of those things is typography. The fonts that are used really do influence the way we approach information. On a more fundamental level, the words you choose are really critical — the words reinforce the visual and the visual reinforces the words. One can’t exist without the other. Showing students how to use typography in ways that amplify meaning and create more truthful tellings of information is really powerful to me. I also research what cultural influences affect how we read, as well as how to make better interfaces.
In a lot of ways, I think everyone has become some form of graphic designer. Engaging on Instagram and deciding what typeface to use on what image is a type of graphic design. You couldn’t say that people were graphic designers 20 or 30 years ago because those tools were not available. I think this is really cool because it is awakening a consciousness of words in people.
Q: What Excites You About Your Work?
Thomas: My work ranges from digital user experience (UX) work to more traditional design work. The UX work I do helps make better interfaces that make it easier for the people who use them. What is fun about that kind of work is that it is inherently collaborative and team-based. I really enjoy the conversations and interactions I have with others on those projects.
The more traditional graphic design work I get to do allows me to be more expressive. I do a little bit of writing, which I enjoy because it allows me to dive deeper in my thinking and share that with the world.
Q: How Did Your BYU Education Prepare You for Your Career?
Thomas: What might be easier to ask is ‘What didn’t it prepare me for?’ So much of my outlook was shaped by my time at BYU as an undergraduate. For example, one thing I still find absolutely fundamental to both then (as a student) and now (as a professional) is understanding the ways in which all things are connected into one whole truth. For me it was interesting to see how things I was learning in other classes, say biology or chemistry or literature, connected to design which then in turn connected to my faith.
BYU is unique because we have a rather broad-based liberal arts education that we get in addition to our discipline-specific educations. For me, both were very important. I was inspired by dozens of teachers, some of which I still get to work with, which is amazing and a great privilege. I hold these experiences as some of my great gratitudes in life.
Q: What Has Been a Moment in Your Career That You Have Been Most Proud Of?
Thomas: The biggest highlights are the people I have worked with and the year’s long collaborations I’ve had with some of my freelance clients who I continue to work with. The process is so deeply collaborative that we couldn’t do any of it without each other. Working with great people is the only way to build amazing brands, digital products, publications and academic programs.
I am proud and excited about building our user experience design offerings at BYU alongside my design faculty colleagues through new programs like our new Product and User Experience BFA and updated offerings in Graphic Design. I am proud to collaborate with friends across campus to build the interdisciplinary Sandbox digital product incubator program.
I am proud of the work I got to do on the Brief Theological Introductions to the Book of Mormon through the Maxwell Institute, in part because I got to work with Brian Kershisnik to art direct new illustrations for every volume of the 12-part series. Getting to collaborate with him was a true highlight. I was also able to typeset and design something that I find deeply impactful and meaningful, working with an incredible editorial team and brilliant authors. Those books are true pieces of scholarship, and they comment on the Book of Mormon which is something I hold dear to my heart.
Other highlights include working on “Never Use Futura,” my first and to-date only book (hopefully not my last) and the work that I did for Wayfare Magazine with a former student, Cole Melanson, which was awarded a 2025 Silver Graphis Design Award. Helping to get Wayfare off the ground in its early stages and create a literary arts magazine for the LDS community has been a real joy.
In 2018, I had the opportunity to speak at the TedX San Francisco conference about my Futura research. My talk was then featured on TED.com for a week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing. I had a student who watched that video four or five years ago and it inspired them to go into the design field. They were talking to me about the video one day and then it dawned on them, “Wait, that’s you!” I am grateful that things fell into place for all of that to happen.
Q: How Does Your Faith Influence Your Work?
Thomas: On a basic level, my faith is the major driver of my work. I have a deep belief in doing work that improves the world. That belief is unequivocally powered by my faith and my belief in God and Jesus Christ.
More specifically, I also believe that in making and designing things, I get to follow the example of my Creator and that creation is a fundamental way in which I can be like God. Not that I get to create in the same way or to the same extent as He does, but I do believe that He wants us to create things and make them well and make them in ways that help serve others
Q: Do You Implicitly or Explicitly Weave That Belief Into Your Teaching?
Thomas: That conversation about making things in the image of God is something I try to share with my students. For instance, in User Experience Design, I believe we have a fundamental duty as children of God to create things to improve our charitable interactions with each other. You can probably think of digital devices that have done the exact opposite, so thinking of ways our designs can make us more charitable and more connected should be a part of our spiritual life. I also like to talk to our students about the ways in which God wants them to succeed in their discipline and that we should involve heaven in our creative pursuits.
Q: What Advice Would You Give to Current Design Students?
Thomas: My number one piece of advice is to remember that design is a team sport. Keep connected with your fellow classmates because they are going to be really important people over the course of your life and work. The second piece of advice is to not feel like you have to do design alone. Even if you don’t have others around you, involve heaven in your design work. The third piece of advice is to just keep at it. Design is a process so you shouldn't expect to be perfect at it all at once.