This is the portfolio, research and creative site for Law Alsobrook, a multi-disciplinary designer & educator teaching as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar.
As a passionate and curious learner, Law’s research agenda includes a spectrum of seeming disparate explorations. Presently he is occupied with the nature of visual narrative and its relationship to consciousness. When not engaged in the ontological or epistemological pursuits of design, he enjoys investigations into the significance of space + place, or the semiotics of travel. And when not engaged in either of these he enjoys researching the d.i.y movement, craft and the symbiotic relation they share with entrepreneurship and alternative models of business and commerce. His creative output includes—but is not limited to—disciplines such as: bookbinding, experimental image making, pinhole & toy-camera photography, interactive design & physical computing, stop-motion animation & experimental filmmaking, as well as printmaking & paper-making.
With regards to design education, he is an avid proponent of hands-on making and is passionate about developing an heuristic learning environment (because making is a type of thinking); Law, therefore, continually strives to promote empiric learning through material experimentation and exploration. As a design teacher, one of his primary concerns is inducting young designers into the often intriguing, though admittedly confusing, world of semiotics & communication theory as applied to visual communication and the formulation of meaning. When not fighting the forces of evil (just seeing if you are paying attention), he is concerned with issues of design praxis within the institution and affirms a constant commitment to a collaborative teaching environment, as well as a student-centric approach to learning.
Law earned his MFA in Graphic Design from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), where his thesis explored visual narrative and the art of show-n-tell. He received his BA from University of Alabama, New College where his depth study in Creativity and Cultural Studies resulted in an undergraduate thesis comprising a cross-cultural comparative dictionary of artifacts and symbolism.
VCUQ is located in Education City and is one of several world-class research institutes established at Hamid Bin Khalifa University under the gracious patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser Al Missned and Qatar Foundation.