Teaching — Amal Abdalla

"As both an artist and educator, I approach teaching as a design problem, structuring each course as a sequence of experiences where students build skills through making, reflecting, and iterating. I draw on my interdisciplinary background in graphic design, interactive media, and education to create assignments that challenge students to think across boundaries: from hand-crafted designs to digital printed designs, from written scripts to animation. My aim is to cultivate not just technical ability, but the creative confidence to bring ideas to life."

ART 1011, Section 004

Visual Organization in Graphic Design

Spring 2023 · East Carolina University

An introductory course emphasizing the importance of visual organization across different design applications. Students explored fundamental concepts and techniques in design through a curriculum that combined theory with practical hands-on and digital projects, building a foundational understanding of graphic design's visual language — elements, principles, typography, color, and layout.

Final Project — Two Parts

Part 1: Natural Textures. Students created three final compositions with textures inspired by nature, working in black ink on paper to explore line quality, pattern, density, and organic form through direct observation.

Part 2: Poster Design. Each student designed five distinct layouts using Adobe Illustrator, featuring diverse grids and compositions. Every layout included a title ("Visual Organization"), a concise personal definition of the concept, and visual qualities drawn from their texture compositions.

Tools & Software

Adobe Illustrator Ink on Paper Typography Grid Systems

Part 1

Natural Textures

Student texture composition — organic swirl pattern

Ink texture study — rhythmic strokes creating movement and depth

Student texture composition — radiating flower form

Ink texture study — radiating lines from a central organic form

Student texture composition — pebble pattern

Ink texture study — flowing lines with scattered organic shapes

Student work laid out for critique — close view

Student work laid out for critique — full table

Student work laid out for critique — angled view

Group critique — full class of texture compositions laid out for review and discussion

Part 2

Poster Designs

Student poster — night sky theme with blue accents

Black-and-white illustration with blue accent typography

Bold organic forms with red-and-white contrast

Student poster — yellow geometric composition

Yellow-and-black composition with hexagonal textures

Student poster — sky blue with mountain forms

Mountain-inspired composition with sky blue palette

Stained-glass style organic forms with yellow accents

Student poster — pink abstract composition

Flowing pink forms with bold angled typography

ART 1014, Section 002

Narrative in Art and Design

Spring 2023 · East Carolina University

An introductory course focused on developing individual skills in animation and motion graphics through the creative process, storytelling, visualization, and animation production. Students completed two projects exploring narrative through both traditional and digital animation techniques, moving from brainstorming and scriptwriting through storyboarding to final production.

Final Project — Mini Positive Me

Students created a short motion graphic video (15+ seconds) where the main character is their own name. Each video tells the story of one positive personal characteristic — bravery, politeness, calm, creativity. The process moved from brainstorming to scriptwriting, storyboarding, and production, using their names and typography to reveal their chosen positive trait through animation.