Brian LaRossa (he/him) is an executive art director in the hardcover picture book group at Scholastic, the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books. After hours he teaches a course on design criticism for The City College of New York and is a mentor for We Need Diverse Books. He has written numerous critical essays for publications, such as Design Observer and AIGA’s Eye on Design. He also manages his own display font foundry, which developed a typeface for Google Fonts. In his spare time, he writes fiction. His work has won awards from the Type Directors Club, Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, Print Magazine, and his conceptual poetry is included in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. He lives and works in New York City.

If you’d like to get in touch, please say hello. If you’re looking for him on social, he’s @brianlarossa on Bluesky. If you’re an illustrator, and you’d like share your portfolio, please visit this form. If you’d like to host him as a speaker or critic, learn more here. 

SELECT PRESS
▸ Literaticast, podcast
▸ Scratching the Surface, podcast
▸ SCBWI, interview
▸ Type Director’s Club, interview
▸ Type Thursday, interview
▸ David Karins, interview
▸ Print Magazine, interview

SELECT WRITINGS
▸ Throwing Pencils
▸ Graphic Design is a Literary Discipline
▸ Design as a Third Area of General Education
▸ Why it Matters if Designers Read and Write
▸ The Role of Letterforms in Reading Instruction
▸ The Architecture of Graphic Design’s Discourse
▸ Questioning Graphic Design’s Ethicality