Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Aidan Winterburn
Senior Lecturer
Aidan has taught on Graphic Design since 2001 and has been instrumental in attempting to integrate the students' studio work with their critical and contextual knowledge through the introduction of the Critical Study on the course. In this capacity, he lectures regularly and his particular areas of interest include; Modernist design, activist graphic design, the history of artists' magazines, post-punk graphic design and typography, the essay film and sequential art and experimental animation.
Aidan has also written articles for Grafik, Tribune, Varoom and the Modernist magazines as well as having contributed to Street Talk; the Rise and Fall of the Poster and Public Address System, discussing the politics of typography in a book of typographic treatments of famous political speeches.
Current Teaching
BA (Hons) Graphic Design:
- 4.3 Visual Literacy
- 4.5 Contextual and Historical Studies
- 6.1 Negotiated Studio Practice & Critical Study
- 6.3 Extended Studio Practice & Critical Study
MA Graphic Design:
- 7.2 Research Methods
Research Interests
Aidan’s research interests are mainly centred around the role of writing within graphic design and typography – Walter Benjamin wondered aloud in 'One Way Street' what would happen once writers gained control of the means of communication rather than seeing writing as a separate autonomous activity. He writes prophetically 'the precision of typographic forms has entered directly into the conception of books. One might suppose that new systems with more variable typefaces might then be needed'.
Aidan writes and designs typographic chapbooks/ zines of poetry, makes typographic projections onto buildings and produces essay films that emphasise the written and typographic form, particularly looking at the notion of writing with images through montage.
Aidan also writes critically for magazines like Varoom about illustration and for the Modernist and Tribune magazine about visual culture generally.
Ask Me About
- Animation
- Architecture
- Art
- Communications
- Culture
- Design
- Film
- Photography
- Popular culture
Selected Outputs
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Winterburn A PAGES Artists Book Fair The Tetley, Leeds. 1 January 2014 - 1 January 2015.
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Winterburn A (2016) Self-Reflexivity and Contemporary Illustrated Children’s Books. VaroomLab, 4 pp. 124-131.
https://theaoi.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/VaroomLab-Journal-Issue4-Visionaries.pdf
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Winterburn A (2004) Hit the North.
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Winterburn A (2006) Up Against the Wall. In: Lewis A; Frost M; Winterburn A ed. Street Talk : the Rise and Fall of the Poster. Australia: Images Publishing,
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Winterburn A (2006) Politics Is A Matter of Leading and Kerning. In: Warden H; Winterburn T ed. Public Address System: Poster Speeches by Typographers. Australia: Images Publishing,
