Amir Berbić

Amir Berbić is a graphic designer who works on questions surrounding identities of place. He collaborates on projects with cultural organizations, arts institutions, and publishers, with commissions that range from print design to three-dimensional typography to environmental graphics.

Prior to becoming Dean of VCUarts in Qatar in 2019, he was a tenured Professor and Chair of Graphic Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), where he also served as Associate Dean at the UIC College of Architecture, Design and the Arts, and as Acting Director of the UIC School of Design. Berbić was on the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Chicago Board of Directors, serving as Vice President and Co-Chair of Education from 2015–2018. From 2004 to 2014, he was a faculty member at the American University of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates.

Born in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Berbić moved to Chicago in the 1990s, where he completed his design education and began a career in editorial design and publishing. He holds a BFA in Graphic Design from UIC, and an MFA in Visual Communication from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

His works have featured in numerous academic and professional publications, conferences, and exhibitions, including Design Issues, Visual Communication, Print, Graphis, Wallpaper, the AIGA Design Educators Conference, TypeCon, the Society of Typographic Arts, ICOGRADA, the World Design Summit, and Salone del Mobile in Milan. His work is included in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.