Department of Art

John R. Craft is currently Professor in the Graphic Communications Management Program at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, USA. He has served as a full member of the Graduate Faculty and has had articles published in GATF (Graphic Arts Technical Foundation) World, Visual Communications Journal, International Circle of Graphic Arts Journal and other numerous publications. He teaches courses in cross-media production, digital media composition, and Web development. He is an Adobe Certified Expert in Photoshop and has a doctorate in Technology Education from North Carolina State University.

He serves on the Graphic Arts Merit Badge Committee (1967 Eagle Scout). Additionally, He has served as First-Vice President for the International Graphic Arts Education Association (now Graphic Communications Education Association). He also served as Regional Vice President for Region 3 for the IGAEA. He was elected as the first president of the National Association of Industrial Technology’s (now the Association of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering) Graphics Division in 1998. He served as president for a two-year term and as past president for two years. He was elected for a second term as President of the Graphics Division for 2009 — 2011. He has received a research grant from the Electronic Documents Systems Foundation for the study “Catalog Production: Breaking away from tradition”. He acquired a $1,044,000 software donation from EskoGraphics. In 1990, he established Appalachian State University as an Authorized Training Center for the Aldus Corporation, leading to software site license agreements with Adobe, Inc. Appalachian State University was the only Aldus authorized training center in North Carolina.

He has presented papers at conferences for the International Graphic Communications Arts and Sciences Conference on the campus of the National Taiwan University of Arts in New Taipei City, Taiwan. His paper, “Contract Proofing: Taking Care of the Business of Print” was presented on December 3, 2007, and “Catalog Production—social media networking, the next step,” was presented on November 25, 2009. He presented a paper titled “Globalized graphic communications curriculum” for the 42 nd International Circle of Institutes for Graphic Arts Education and Printing Management Conference in Moscow Russia, October 18 — 20, 2010, and Generation Xml at the GCEA Conference at Cal Poly, July 7, 2015. His most recent presentation was on enhancement digital printing at the IC Conference, Warsaw, Poland on October 4, 2018.

He serves on the editorial review panel for the Visual Communications Journal and the International Circle of Educational Institutes for Graphic Arts and Printing Management Journal.

He serves or has served on scientific committees for conferences in Athens, Greece, Warsaw, Poland, and Seville, Spain.

Founding member of the App Unidos— Hispanic/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association on campus.