Profile
Associate Professor of Design Strategies, School of Design Strategies
Aaron Fry is a business design educator and strategy consultant. Formerly a practicing artist,
Aaron’s research interests are expressed through his writing at the intersection of design, business
and the social sciences. Aaron is co-founder and director, Visualizing Finance Lab.
https://www.visualizingfinancelab.com/, a research initiative that explores the efficacy of ‘narrative
visualization’ and behavioral psychology in Financial Literacy Education. Author of numerous
published articles, Aaron speaks regularly at conferences and gives workshops internationally.
Aaron has 26 years of full-time experience as a design educator, 16 of these at Parsons. Aaron’s
recent work has focused on the redevelopment of key courses in Parson’s Master of Science
in Strategic Design and Management program.
Aaron holds a BFA, a Post-Graduate Diploma and an MFA and is currently completing his PhD
on the subject of how bodily engagement with material affects Design Thinking for business
innovation.
Degrees Held
PhD. Candidate, Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne, Australia
MFA, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, USA
Graduate Diploma in Art, Sydney College of the Arts, Sydney University, Australia
BFA, Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland, New Zealand
Recent Publications
Toward designing explanations of data-based transactions in socio-technical systems. Book Chapter in Making Data: The creative practice of materializing digital information. Bloomsbury London. 2020
Strategic Design and the Future of Work-and-Wellness. With Prof. Rhea Alexander. Design for Health, Taylor and Francis. 2018
Co-Designing Financial Literacy Materials, Lead author, with Prof. Jennifer Wilson, Priscila Williams-Soberanes, Carol Overby, Fernanda Flores.
The International Journal of Design in Society, Vol 12, Issue 2, 2018.
Visual strategies for co-design with a community partner, second author, with Carol Overby and Jennifer Wilson.
FORMakademisk, Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences, Oslo, Norway, 2017
Design entrepreneurship in the Post-Recession Economy: Parsons’ ELab, a Design School Incubator, with Rhea Alexander and Samar Ladhib. Cuaderno 64, Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación [Ensayos], 2017, Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación, Facultad de Diseño y Comunicación. Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
“Advanced Craft” Integrated with Saper Fare; the Role of Intangible Value and the Centrality of the Artisan in High Quality
21st Century Craftsmanship, with Gabriele Goretti, Samar Ladhib, Elisabetta Cianfanelli and Carol Overby. Cuaderno 64,
Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación [Ensayos], 2017
Co-Designing Financial Literacy Materials, with Jennifer Wilson, Priscilla Soberanes. Carol Overby. Proceedings from 10th International Conference on Design Principles and Practice, Pontifical Catholic University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 2016
Post-Recession Consumerism in the U.S.: The Influence of Cheap and Chic Consumer Products on Perceptions of Income Inequality, with Steven Faerm. Cuaderno 53, Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación [Ensayos], 2016
Teaching the design of narrative visualization: behavioral economics and financial literacy, with Carol Overby and Jennifer Wilson, Re/materialising Design Education Futures, Studies in Material Thinking Vol 11, 2016
Research Interests
design thinking, business innovation, financial literacy design, strategic design, metaphor and visualization, information visualization