Graphic design instructors speak during global conference

Pennsylvania College of Technology graphic design instructors Brian A. Flynn and David M. Moyer presented “Visual Literacy: Logo Content Analysis” during the International Visual Literacy Association 2026 Online Conference.

Researchers, educators, designers, media specialists, librarians, museum professionals, scholars, students and artists were invited to provide attendees with new tools, strategies, knowledge and inspiration that can be applied in practice.

Brian A. Flynn (left) and David M. Moyer

“David and I were excited to share some of the exciting things we are doing in our Visual Literacy II class, as well as to highlight Penn College to an international audience,” Flynn said. 

Countries represented at the conference were Belgium, Brazil, Canada, England, Greece, Sweden, Turkey, Japan, United States and Uzbekistan. 

Flynn and Moyer have been teaching at the college level for more than 30 years. Together, they have taught a Visual Literacy class at Penn College for 12 years. The two co-authored the “Visual Literacy Workbook for Graphic Design and Fine Art Students,” published by Oxford University Press, which is currently used in two Penn College classes: Two-Dimensional Design and Visual Literacy. The workbook provides a detailed approach to understanding visual imagery and presents a wide range of fine art, graphic and digital examples. 

The school’s Visual Literacy I course is the foundational, prerequisite course for the study of design.  

“It is the bedrock on which all the subsequent graphic and industrial design courses rest and greatly influences the teaching of those courses,” Moyer said.  

Visual literacy, Moyer shared with attendees, is the ability to see and understand the form and content of a visual image.  

The Visual Literacy II class focuses on visual content – or the message communicated by a visual image – expressed in art and graphic design. Moyer said students in the class conduct a series of “bracketed observations of form and content, isolating and examining the elements of their observations separated from their pictorial context, presenting their findings in both written and oral class presentations.” 

“Emphasis is placed on their ability to give coherent reasons for their statements based on design and content theory, expressed using appropriate vocabulary,” he said. “‘Form’ and ‘content’ category analysis are evaluated individually and then summarized and synthesized to complete the analysis, starting with visual form and progressing to visual content.”  

The annual conference is an impressive gathering of educators, creators, thinkers and innovators who aim to fulfill the mission of the International Visal Literacy Association to work toward “a fuller understanding of the way we derive meaning from what we see and the way we interact with our visual environment.”

To learn more about Penn College’s graphic design & art program, call 570-327-4521.

For information about Penn College, a national leader in applied technology education, email the Admissions Office or call toll-free 800-367-9222.