Jason W. Howell received his MFA in Visual Communication from the University of Oklahoma in 2001. He has taught design and typography at Oklahoma State University, the University of Oklahoma, Southern Illinois University Carbondale and Oral Roberts University. As an educator, Howell integrates traditional design techniques with contemporary technology to solve complex communication problems. In and out of the classroom, his passion for and focus on typographic practice is helping to reestablish design principles in media forms such as digital tablet/mobile publications, online advertising, motion graphics and interactive applications.
As a designer whose clients include Crownline Boats, SwimTulsa, Oklahoma State University Alumni Association and Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Art and Design, Howell has received awards from Graphic Design USA (GDUSA) and American Advertising Federation (ADDY) Tri-State Advertising and Marketing Professionals chapter. As a lecturer and author, Howell has spoken at "Design: Refining Our Knowledge: International Graphic Design Education Conference," "AIGA Intent/ Content Graphic Design Educator's Conference," and “Mid-America College Art Association’s TECHNE Conference.” Howell has lent his expertise as a textbook and manuscript reviewer for Pearson and Lawrence King publishers and has authored multiple textbooks for charter school art courses. Since 2022, Howell has been investigating a new alignment between visual communication examples and established communication theory and practice as collaborative research with Dr. Katherine Kelley Howell, PhD. In 2023, he continued this research interest as panelist and co-presenter, for "Where Do We Go From Here?: Professionals Making Sense Through Perspective Sharing and Perspective Taking" Top Panel at the Central States Communication Association 2023 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2023, he also contributed a section on visual communication to Communication by Design, Becoming a Better Communicator: A Basic Course in Interpersonal and Public Communication textbook.
As an advocate for typographic principles in the visual arts, Howell produces fine art prints using screen printing and letterpress techniques. His most recent series, Persona non Grata uses abstraction, cropping and color to highlight subtle anatomical details of personified letterform nomenclature. Persona non Grata's functional goal is to bring attention to the overlooked beauty of letterforms through a blend of design technology, elements, principles and historical reference. As a proponent for an exhibition of faith in artistic practice, he also produces a series of postmodern scriptural prints entitled Logos. In 2017, Howell received an ORU President’s Research Grant to fund student collaborative, multilingual Logos typographic prints that feature a modern approach to biblical verses relevant to the Spirit Empowered Movement and the founding mission of ORU.
Howell has participated in several juried exhibitions, including the prestigious Los Angeles Printmaking Society's Layers of Identity II Exhibition held at Arena One Gallery, Santa Monica, California, the Marin Society of Artists Fresh Art exhibition at the Marin Art & Garden Center in Ross California, Multiple Impressions / Printmaking at the Springfield (IL) Arts Association gallery, K Space Contemporary’s Third Coast National in Corpus Christi, TX, and NEGATIVE SPACE at Mainline Art, Tulsa, Oklahoma. Howell has also exhibited at Maiden Alley Cinema in Paducah, Kentucky, the University Museum at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, and the PAC Gallery at the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma. In 2001 he was awarded the TG Mays Purchase Award by the Fred Jones Jr Museum of Art in Norman, Oklahoma.
In 2016 Howell was invited to become an ArtistINC Tulsa fellow hosted by the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Oklahoma Visual Artist Coalition (OVAC), Tulsa Community College, Tulsa Film & Music Office, and the Oklahoma Arts Council. Sponsored by the George Kizer Family Foundation, the Loebeck-Taylor Foundation and Tulsa Community College the extended program assembled and prepared artists from several genres to advance their professional art careers.
Howell currently teaches graphic design, typography and web design, and has also served as a faculty design advisor for the design of ORU’s yearbook, Perihelion, newspaper, Oracle, and literary journal, Promethia. His educational goal is to help mold students into professional designers who can solve complex communication problems through creative solutions that transcend time, media and culture.
He is a current and/or former member of College Art Association, as well as the American
Center for Design (now UCDA), FATE, Foundations in Art: Theory and Education, the
Mid-America College Art Association (CIVA), Christians in the Visual Arts and AIGA,
the professional association of design.
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