Dave Gottwald is an award-winning visual designer, design educator, and writer with extensive experience in design for user experience and interaction, print and digital media, and within the built environment. Areas of expertise include creative direction, brand strategy, identity work, naming and copywriting, exhibit design, publications, digital experiences, and marketing campaigns. He is deeply interested in history, immersion, and storytelling; in exhibit spaces, in print, online, and on devices.
Currently Associate Professor in the Art and Design Department of the College of Art & Architecture at the University of Idaho, Dave teaches UI/UX for mobile, experiential design for the built environment, exhibit design, typography, digital imaging, and design history. His research explores the theming of consumer spaces, the genealogy and taxonomy of thematic design, and the liminal blur between the built environment and the virtual.
Dave is a co-editor for and contributor to Virtual Interiorities, a three-volume collection now available in eBook and softcover from Carnegie Mellon ETC Press. The collection links ongoing discussions in the humanities, film, game studies, architecture, and design disciplines under the aegis of what “virtual” means in a socio-spatial context.
Along with Greg Turner-Rahman, he was the recipient of the 2019 Design Incubation Writing Fellowship and the 2020 Constructed Environment International Award for Excellence for their current collaboration, Our World as a Set, from Theme Parks and Video Games to Virtual Reality: The End of Architecture (forthcoming, Intellect Books / The University of Chicago Press). He is also co-author of Disney and the Theming of the Contemporary Zoo: Kingdoms of Artifice for the Studies in Disney and Culture series (forthcoming, Lexington Books).
He has also been published in Disegno—Journal of Design Culture, The International Journal of Architectonic, Spatial, and Environmental Design, The International Journal of the Constructed Environment, The International Journal of the Image, and Landscape Research Record.
Gottwald taught design part time at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for ten years in the Pre-College, Undergraduate, and Graduate programs. From 2011–2016, he served as an MFA thesis advisor at AAU. During that time he spoke at American Anthropological Association, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and the Arts Reach Association. He is a former member of the AIGA San Francisco Board of Directors, and served as a reviewer at AIGA SF's annual Portfolio Day for many years.
Before taking his current position at the University of Idaho, Dave was Senior Designer at the Oakland Museum of California where he was responsible for the creative direction of 2D exhibit design, exhibition branding, and identity projects. He served as designer or lead designer on over two dozen exhibits and installations (including at Oakland International Airport), ranging from 1,100 to 30,000 square feet. In addition he provided creative direction for marketing efforts and advertising campaign work.
Photography for OMCA: Terry Carroll, Torreya Cummings, Odell Hussey, Andria Lo, Matthew Millman, and Shaun Roberts.
Other photography: Kristen Angelo, Dirk Dieter, Dave Gottwald, Tom Klump, and Mike Moss.