Rate My Professor Robert Finkel

Robert Finkel is a Professor and Program Chair of Graphic Design in the Auburn University School of Industrial and Graphic Design within the College of Architecture, Design and Construction. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology and Sociology from Rhodes College, completed graduate studies in Graphic Design at the Portfolio Center, and received a Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design from the University of Florida in 2011. Prior to his academic career, Finkel interned at Pentagram and worked as a designer at Slaughter Group in Birmingham, Alabama. He joined the Auburn faculty in 2012 as an assistant professor, advanced to associate professor, and was recently promoted to full professor. In 2021, he was appointed Graphic Design Program Chair. Finkel teaches courses including Typography, Graphic Design History, Corporate Identity Design, Signage and Wayfinding, Letterpress Printing, and Design for Social Good. His research interests encompass branding and identity, typography, graphic design history, and letterpress printing.

Finkel's creative scholarship has garnered significant recognition. He received a $5,000 Design Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for his artistic merit, career achievement, professional development, and service to the state. Graphic Design USA named him an Educator to Watch in 2018 and awarded him a 2022 American Graphic Design Award for his comprehensive branding and wayfinding signage system for the 127-mile Red Rock Trail System in Jefferson County, Alabama, which included strategic messaging, logos, map kiosks, interpretive signs, and trail blazes. Additional honors include a win in the 2023 Graphis Design Competition and a GDUSA award. Notable publications include co-authoring the book The IBM Poster Program: Visual Memoranda, published by Lund Humphries in 2021 following three years of archival research. Key design projects feature the Selma Bloody Sunday Foot Soldiers exhibition, Alabama’s Gulf State Park Signage and Trail Map, Lee County Remembrance Project, Taco Bay branding, and The Retreat Day Spa identity. Finkel has served as a juror for the University & College Designers Association and led initiatives such as reviving the CADC SHOWCASE exhibition in 2025 to highlight creative scholarship.