Hannah Smotrich

Associate Professor, School of Art & Design

Contact

Email: .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
Office: 1017 AA
Phone: (734) 763-4820

Curriculum Vitae

M.F.A., Yale School of Art, 1991 B.A. (History), Harvard University, 1987

Biography

Hannah Smotrich is a graphic designer who joined the faculty in 2002. Her projects encompass exhibition design, environmental graphics, print publications, and identity systems. In both her design practice and teaching, Smotrich works collaboratively with community-based non-profits and grass roots leaders to develop and instantiate community narratives.

Recent work centered on communities, identity, and cultural history include: Las Rebeldes: Stories of Strength and Struggle in Southeastern Michigan, a Detroit exhibition celebrating the contributions of Chicana women to the politics and culture of Michigan; Weaving a World, an exhibit for Museum L-A on the lives and community of textile workers in Lewiston, Maine; “Odpowiedz . . . Please Respond” a bilingual, participatory public-art installation at the Jewish Cultural Festival held in Krakow, Poland; and a multi-neighborhood system of Neighborhood Heritage Trails in Washington, DC, developed and implemented over the course of a decade.

Together with Stamps colleague Joe Trumpey, Smotrich worked with a team of students, over the course of two years, in an international design/build studio to assess needs, design, implement and train a local team to build improved cookstoves in the Maasai village of Lesoit, Tanzania.

Smotrich is also a Faculty Affiliate at the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, where she regularly collaborates on design work. Earlier in her career, the United States Postal Service selected Smotrich to design the first commemorative Hannukah stamp, issued jointly with Israel.

Smotrich began her career as a designer at Carbone Smolan in New York city, launched her own firm, side view, in Washington, DC, and for seven years taught graphic design at the Corcoran College of Art and Design.

In the News

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• Stamps Students Design for U-M Bicentennial Exhibition
• 4/25: Sign Painting Demo and Reception at Signal Return
• “Lettering in Public” Exhibition at Signal-Return, Detroit