Through my research and creative practice, I study where graphics come from, what they do, and how they change over time. I combine my studio background with humanities methods to explore graphic design as social communication with a particular interest in diy and material cultures.
designing
writing
- Toppins, A. (2025), Thinking Through Graphic Design History: Challenging the Canon, London: Bloomsbury.
- Toppins, A. (2024), “Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without the Cult of Hero Worship?,” What It Means To Be a Designer Today: Reflections, Questions, and Ideas from aiga’s Eye on Design, pp. 120–126, eds. L. Stinson, J. Fuller, & P. Drumm, New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
- Toppins, A. (2023), “On the Contradictions of Feminist Branding,” Feminist Designer: On the Personal and the Political in Design, pp. 28–33, ed. A. Place, Cambridge: mit Press.
- Toppins, A. (2023), “Project Review: ‘Making Room for Abolition,’ by Lauren Williams,” Diseña 22: 1–13.
- Toppins, A. (2022), “Dig If You Will the Picture...: Reading Prince’s Semiotic World,” Design Issues 38(4): 63–75.
- Toppins, A. (2022), “Good Nostalgia/Bad Nostalgia,” Design and Culture 14(1): 1–25.
- Toppins, A. (2021), “We Need Graphic Design Histories That Look Beyond the Profession,” aiga Eye on Design.
- Toppins, A. (2021), “Collective Authorship and Shared Process: the Madame Binh Graphics Collective,” Baseline Shift: Untold Stories of Women in Graphic Design History, pp. 85–93, ed. B. Levit, New York: Princeton Architectural Press.
- Toppins, A. (2020), “Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without Chronology?,” aiga Eye on Design.
- Toppins, A. (2020), “Can We Teach Graphic Design History Without the Cult of Hero Worship?,” aiga Eye on Design.
- Toppins, A. (2018), “Designers, Please Pay Your Interns,” aiga Eye on Design.