Education
M.F.A., The University of Texas at Austin
B.S., Illinois State University
Jacob DeGeal is a multi-disciplinary designer focused on collaboration, communities, and code. While working as an in-house web designer at Illinois State University, he co-founded a bike advocacy organization, Bike BloNo. Seeing first hand the value of design in the public arena, this led him to pursue his MFA at The University of Texas at Austin, where he studied the intersection of planning, community development, design, and technology. There he created ChalkTalk, a participatory design methodology for designing sustainable public infrastructures. He then became a hybrid planner/designer at Nelson\Nygaard Consulting Associates in Boston, MA, working on multi-modal transportation projects with cities nationwide. In 2020 he won a 10-month public art residency through the city of Salem with his creative partner, Lauren Smedley, helping local businesses navigate the COVID-19 pandemic through creative queuing, placemaking, and wayfinding. This resulted in the founding of Creative Blocks, an experiential design and placemaking studio.
Jacob is an Assistant Professor of Integrated Design at the University of Baltimore. His research focuses on how fabrication, design methodologies, and participatory design can influence positive human interactions and experiences in the built environment.
Experiential design, coding, urban planning, transportation planning, equitable public involvement, participatory design, tactical urbanism, digital fabrication, auto-ethnography, urban interaction design.
Web UX design, design foundations, advanced design theory, design thinking, design methodologies, branding, typography, professional practice, portfolio development, photography, service design, design for social good, design in the public sector
Book Reviews
DeGeal, J. (2024). Co-Cities: Innovative Transitions toward Just and Self-Sustaining Communities by Sheila R. Foster and Christian Iaione. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2022, 238pp. PB 9780262539982. $40.00 Reviewed by Jacob DeGeal. Design & Culture/Taylor and Francis.
DeGeal, J. Weave: 2025 AIGA Design Educators Community Conference, "Public Design Intervention as an Interdisciplinary Tool for Social Design," AIGA Design Educators Community, Normal, IL. (2025).
DeGeal, J. Panel on Co-Design, "ChalkTalk: Human-centered design for human-scaled environments," Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister Cities Committee, Baltimore, MD. (2025).
DeGeal, J., & Smedley, L. 2025 Annual Juried Student Exhibition, "The Art of Asking," York College of Pennsylvania, York, PA. (2025).
DeGeal, J. Hands-on Workshp, "ChalkTalk: a Participatory Methodology for Designing Resilient Public Spaces," Project for Public Spaces, Baltimore, MD. (2024).
DeGeal, J. RLB Staff Retreat, "RLB Retreat Workshop," RLB Library University of Baltimore, RLB Library Room 412. (2024).
DeGeal, J. E., & Smedley, L. K. AIGA Annual Conference, "Redesigning the Design Critique," AIGA, New York City, NY. (2023).
DeGeal, J. E. AIGA Annual Conference, "ChalkTalk : A Participatory Design Methodology for Designing Resilient Sustainable Transportation Infrastructures," AIGA, New York City, NY. (2023).
DeGeal, J. E. Construct3D Conference, "How fabrication fits into an interdisciplinary humanities program," Construct3D, Brooklyn, New York City, NY. (2023).
DeGeal, J. Baltimore Data Day, "Data Visualizations and Design Citizenship," Baltimore Neighborhood Indicators Alliance, Baltimore, MD. (2023).
DeGeal, Jacob (Supporting), "Data Visualizations and Infographics for ReBUILD" Sponsored by Robert W. Deutch Foundation, The University of Baltimore, $5000. (2024).
Summers, Kathryn , DeGeal, Jacob (Co-Principal), "Provisional Voting & Polling Place Materials" Sponsored by MD State Board of Elections, State, $20000. (2022 - 2023).
"ChalkTalk: Design Methodology" (On-Going)
Research and prototyping for custom design methodology for public design interventions. Methodology currently takes the form of a booklet and PDF, and has been tested in the graduate classroom, high school community programs, and creative studios.