Design scholar and design educator, with a background as a typographer and graphic arts technology engineer.

In 1999 I received my doctorate on an epistemologically and historically inclined thesis about experimental legibility research, ‘Knowledge construction in typography: the case of legibility research’, at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication at the University of Reading – as a recipient of the Overseas Research Student Award, awarded by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals of the Universities of the United Kingdom.

I am the founding father of NTNU’s Colourlab (the Norwegian Colour and Visual Computing Laboratory), NTNU’s bachelor’s degree programme in Graphic Design and NTNU’s master’s degree programme in Interaction Design. Furthermore, I played a central team role in establishing a civil engineering programme in electronic publishing and multimedia technology – which later evolved into NTNU’s master’s degree programme in Applied Computer Science.

For many years, I was the study programme director for BA in Graphic Design, and for several years a regular guest lecturer at the Bergen Academy of Art and Design. In the three-year period 2012–2015 I was a Reader / Senior Lecturer and study programme director for the master’s programme in Information Design at the University of Reading. Since 2004, I have annually (except for 2020) – in situ – taught the classical epigraphic lettering tradition in Rome for Norwegian graphic design students. On an annual basis I also appear as a guest lecturer at the Faculty of Art, Music and Design at the University of Bergen.

In addition to various teaching and supervision tasks throughout the academic year – which include supervising doctoral students, supervising master’s degree projects, supervising the presentation portfolio for graduating graphic design students, individual lectures on the history of information graphics, and responsibility for the annual week-long study trip to Rome – I currently have teaching and supervision responsibilities for the following courses: Typography 1 (7.5 ECTS credits), Editorial Design 1 (7.5 ECTS credits) and History of Typography [on lettering, typography and modern graphic design] (15 ECTS credits).

I have been the deputy chair of the Norwegian Council of Universities and Colleges’ National Council for Higher Design Education, and for two periods (2017–2025) I was an employee-elected representative on the governing board for the Faculty of Architecture and Design [and Fine Arts] at NTNU, as well as a member of the faculty’s appointment committee for academic positions. I was the faculty’s representative in an interfaculty working group (2018–2021) for developing a new scheme for basic pedagogical competence for academic staff at NTNU. And in 2020, together with two colleagues at the BA Graphic Design programme, we received the Study Quality Award – ‘for individuals or groups of professionals who have distinguished themselves in developing the quality of the study programmes at NTNU in Gjøvik’. In addition, I chaired the study programme council (with industry and student representation) for the Department of Design’s BA and MA programmes at campus Gjøvik between 2017 and 2021. I am also the de facto subject referee for the acquisition of all design related literature at NTNU’s campus library in Gjøvik. I am a member of the editorial board of the online-only journal Form Akademisk, and I have previously been the book reviews editor of Information Design Journal.

I occasionally review design articles for scholarly/scientific journals, design papers for conferences, book manuscripts for publishers, design programmes for educational quality assurance bodies, applications for artistic grant programmes, design research project applications for national research councils and other funding bodies, as well as the competence of applicants for academic positions at design departments at universities and university colleges. I am occasionally an external examiner/opponent for doctoral vivas/defences at home and abroad. In 2021 I was a member of the jury, and in 2022, 2023 and 2024 I chaired the jury for the annual Norwegian competition ‘Årets vakreste bøker’ (The Most Beautiful Books of the Year), organized by Grafill, the Norwegian organization for graphic designers and illustrators [and increasingly interaction designers].

I lecture at irregular intervals for organizations, graphic design studios, interaction design consultancies, and at universities in Norway and abroad. I am co-editor of Information design: research and practice (Routledge, 2017), and was the organizer of the day-long conference Trykkteknologi, farge, design: historiske perspektiv [Printing technologies, colour and design: Historical perspectives] at NTNU in 2017.

Ongoing research and/or book projects: ‘Effective hyphenation of compound words’, ‘Legibility research as a project of modernity’, ‘Pluridimensionality in typography’, and ‘The graphic works of Géo De Vlamynck’.

Examples of professional outreach

‘Signature pedagogies in design, architecture and fine art’. Lecture for the academic staff at the Department of Design at the University of Bergen, Monday 25 November 2024.

‘Sakprosabok jeg har et sterkt forhold til’ [‘A non-fiction book I cherish for the clever design of its cover’]. A short text about a book cover by Peter Haars (Germany, Germany by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, Pax Forlag, 1968). For Grafill’s website, 2022.

‘Design for lesing’ [‘Design for reading’]. An interview about dictionary typography in
ord | bok, f, m, a promotional tabloid-sized magazine about the publishing house Cappelen Damm’s award-winning dictionary series, about printed and digital dictionaries, about lexicography, and about the design of dictionaries, pp. 26–28. Cappelen Damm, 2018.

‘Typografiens rolle i visuell og skriftspråklig kommunikasjon’. A six-hour one-day lecture about the role of typography in visual and written communication – delivered on numerous occasions for members of professional organizations, employees at graphic designs studios and employees at interaction design consultancies.

Publications

Black, Alison, Paul Luna, Ole Lund, and Sue Walker (eds). 2017. Information design: research and practice. New York and London: Routledge [xvi + 750 pp.] Look inside

Lund, Ole. 2010. ‘Appendix: Ole Lund: Trykkskriftene i Jan van Huysums Blomsterstykke (1840)’, pp. 557–560; appendix to Vigdis Ystad, ‘Jan van Huysums Blomsterstykke’, pp. 544–556, in At være sig selv nærværende: Festskrift til Niels Jørgen Cappelørn, edited by Joakim Garff, Ettore Rocca and Pia Søltoft. Copenhagen: Kristelig Dagblads Forlag

Lund, Ole. 2006. ‘Easy going operationalism’. Progetto Grafico (Roma/Milano), vol. 4, no. 8, pp. 16–20

Lund, Ole. 2005. ‘Il dibattito pubblico sull’alfabeto per i segnali stradali di Jock Kinneir’. Progetto Grafico (Roma/Milano), vol. 3, no. 4/5, pp. 128–149

Lund, Ole. 2004. ‘Evidence-based typography or easy-going operationalism?’. In Proceedings of the first international conference on typography and visual communication: history, theory, education: June 2002 Thessaloniki, pp. 93–98. Thessaloniki: University of Macedonia Press [ResearchGate]

Lund, Ole. 2003. ‘The public debate on Jock Kinneir’s directional road signs and road sign alphabet’. Typography Papers, no. 6, pp. 103–126 [ResearchGate; and Jock Kinneir Library]

[Lund, Ole and Sergio Polano]. 2001. ‘Encyclopædia of 20th century graphic design periodicals: Supplement 1 [Scandinavia & Italia]’. Dot dot dot: visual culture magazine, no. 2, p. 78

Lund, Ole. 1997. Review article of Colin Wheildon, ‘Type & layout: how typography and design can get your message across – or get in the way’. Information Design Journal, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 74–77

Lund, Ole. 1997. ‘Why serifs are (still) important’. Typography Papers, no. 2, pp. 91–104 [ResearchGate]

Lund, Ole. 1996. ‘Bokessay: Skriften som grafisk medium’. Prosa, no. 1, pp. 22–26

Lund, Ole. 1995. Review article of Kim Pedersen and Anders Kidmose, ‘In black & white: an r & d report on typography and legibility’. Information Design Journal, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 91–95

Lund, Ole. 1991. Skriftprøver. Oslo: Brødr. Fossum

Teaching

IDG 2312 Typografihistorie (15 ECTS credits)

IDG 1101 Typografi 1 (7.5 ECTS credits)

IDG 2014 Redaksjonell design 1 (7.5 ECTS credits; two times in the academic year 2025/2026)

and as a contributor in 

IDG 1051 Informasjonsgrafikk (7.5 ECTS credits)

IDG 3014 Emneoverbyggende prosjekt, mappe og avgangsutstilling (ECTS credits sp)