Biography
My trans-cultural background and encountering diverse worldviews inform my approach to design as an expanded practice. I founded Design for Development (D4D) to collaborate with Indigenous entrepreneurs in rural Mexico and subject matter experts to identify and address issues within their specific contexts. This requires a shift from the concept of the designer serving clients to designers as partners in shaping positive futures. To this end, my goal is to orient the design discipline toward new and existing sustainable and responsible practices.
With Raúl Sánchez, I co-authored the chapter “CoDesigning for Development” in The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design, edited by RB Egenhoffer. London: Routledge Press, published in 2024 — selected publications are listed below. I received several grants to support my work, including three Fulbright grants, a Sappi “Ideas That Matter” grant, and the inaugural American Institute of Graphic Arts Design Research Grant. I share my work on design methods and pedagogy at conferences, including Design Research Society, AIGA, and SECAC. If you're interested in my work on tourism and representation, check out one of my favorite articles, “Identity and Representation: (Yucatec) Maya in the Visual Culture of Tourism,” which was published in the Latin American and Caribbean Ethnic Studies Journal. I value design pedagogy and was one of 24 international educators contributing to the Icograda Design Education Manifesto Update.
My creative design work has appeared in national and international juried exhibitions in the UK, Hungary, Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, and the US. In the past, I have worked as a senior designer for Sapient (Atlanta) on the design of large-scale websites for international clients, including the Dutch bank ING, and have also worked at other design agencies, as well as with the US Government. Service to the discipline includes reviewing conference and book proposals and serving on design juries, including Design Incubation’s Communication Design Educators Awards program.
EDUCATION
- MFA, Design, emphasis Visual Communications, Virginia Commonwealth University
- BA, Political Science, History, Villanova University
- UX certification (UXC), Nielsen/Norman Group
- Additionally, I studied Advertising Design (University of Maryland, College Park) and International Development (American University).
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
- Rogal, M. and Sánchez, R. “Codesigning for Development” in The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design, 2nd Edition, edited by RB Egenhoffer. London: Routledge Press. pp 299–312.
- Rogal, M. “Contextualizing Your Design Practice: Two Exercises for Design Students,” in The Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Design, 2nd Edition, edited by RB Egenhoffer. London: Routledge Press. pp 625-629.
- Rogal, M. “Hacia una planeta pluriversal” in Diseño y territorios (Ed: Mariana Salgado), Buenos Aires, Argentina. pp 45–52. ISBN 978-987-88-5065-8
- Rogal, M. "El Calendario del Mundo Wixárika [Calendar of the Wixárika]" in the editors of Amatullo, Mariana, et al.. Design for Social Innovation: Case Studies from around the World. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2022. pp 62–65.
- Rogal, M. Design Thinking for Social Innovation — Hello from the Pluriverse Podcast: Maria Rogal. Taylor Center for Social Innovation and Design Thinking at Tulane University. With Pluriverse Publication Chapter: Maria Rogal, Written by Ruby Murfield and edited by Natalie Hudanick. https://taylor.tulane.edu/design-thinking/hellopluriverse/maria-rogal/ & https://tulane.box.com/s/yaqkeoe8d7oejx1l5ckon6eu1dhp8fei