Experience

University of Illinois Chicago

• United States
• Higher Education
• 700 & Above Employee

• Instructor, School of Design

  • Aug 2009 - Present

  >>Graduate research seminars: Learning to Write and Writing to Learn have proven to be a highly successful series of courses, transforming the development processes and final outcomes of the masters thesis, and now serve as a cornerstone of the Masters of Design (MDes) degree. The two courses, which Meghan authored and continues to develop, are now [Autumn 2013] required for first year graduate students in both Graphic Design and Industrial Design. "Learning to write" is designed to strengthen and enlarge the thinking that precedes the doing. Students are introduced to the descriptive power of language and investigate, through research and writing, how language can be crafted to enrich and amplify the interpretive knowledge and experience that ultimately defines and shapes design. "Writing to learn" is designed to provide direction for what is ultimately a process of investigation and discovery. Students pursue a subject relative to design in the broadest possible sense; a subject of sincere personal interest that will contribute to their education and practice as designers. >>Undergraduate Senior Design Thinking and Leadership seminar, co-authored by Meghan Ferrill and Cheryl Towler Weese. What is being asked of students during this two-semester course is to come to a personal understanding of what design thinking means; why it is important; what makes it distinctive; how it serves the design process; how it engenders leadership within the design community, and thereby serves the public-at-large. Meghan leads the language component of the class wherein students are engaged in reading--poetry; essays; stories; discourse--and writing--playing with words; telling stories; giving voice to ideas. Reading and writing exercises augment, and in some cases drive, a systematic approach to resolving, as a group, a complex design question posed by a bonafide client. Show less



Studio/lab

• United States
• Design Services
• 1 - 100 Employee

• Consulting Partner, Language

  • Jan 2010 - Present

  Meghan Ferrill is a writer whose literary sensibility and poetic style lends itself to imaginative, spirited verbal and graphic communication. She is an inveterate reader and practiced researcher. She gives abstract ideas authority and stature by creating definitive stories— philosophical approaches, strategic story lines, compelling scenarios, conceptual argumentations—that are robust, well-reasoned and enduring. Her facility with language enriches the design process; believing, as she does, that design inspires language as much as language inspires design. Her aim is to give voice to a given project or place, bringing the envisioned to life in words. Show less



Meghan Ferrill

• Amsterdam, the Netherlands

• Conceptual text designer, creative writer, curator

  • Apr 1991 - Aug 2005

  Throughout her tenure in the Netherlands, Meghan worked in collaboration with well-known graphic designers and design-oriented businesses, creating compelling visual and verbal stories on a variety levels. Meghan’s work includes the conceptualization and authorship of special edition books and monographs, including Exposed: Traast + Gruson and 33 Propositions: Marlies Dekkers, as well as the creation of identities through story (see for instance: studiolonnewenkendonk.nl, pingpongdesign.nl, and dkhome.com). Her literary sensibility and poetic style lends itself to imaginative, spirited communication. Her aim is to give clients a voice. It is our voice, she contends, and ultimately our story that distinguishes us; not per se what we do. In addition to her activities as a creative writer and conceptual text designer, Meghan initiated and curated ‘Poetry in the Stedelijk’ (1993-1996), an unprecedented series of poetry and typography exhibitions for the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, then under the inspired directorship of Rudi Fuchs. The series featured poets Seamus Heaney (Ireland), Wislawa Szymborska (Poland), Joseph Brodsky (Russia/USA), Gwendolyn Brooks (USA), Peter Reading (Britain), Gerrit Kouwenaar (Netherlands), Remco Campert (Netherlands), and Hugo Claus (Belgium); and Dutch typographers Karel Martens, Walter Nikkels, Tessa van der Waals, Wigger Bierma, Anthon Beeke, Kees Nieuwenhuizen, and Polish typographer Woytek Freudenreich. Her work as guest curator has since been fully documented by the Department of Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York. Show less



Lannan Foundation

• Lannan.org

• Director, Literary Programs

  • Aug 1987 - Feb 1991

  Initiated literary grant-making program and established the now internationally recognized Lannan Literary Awards and Fellowships program. Initiated literary grant-making program and established the now internationally recognized Lannan Literary Awards and Fellowships program.