2024 Hall of Achievement Inductee
William “Bill” Ryan, an international expert on visual communication, made extraordinary contributions to the UO School of Journalism and Communication (SOJC) over 27 years (1987-2015) through his teaching, publications, and creative work.
Bill taught numerous courses that contributed to the SOJC’s evolving core curriculum across the school as well as to the advertising and journalism sequences. Core required classes included Visual Communication, a course he developed and taught for many years, Gateway to Media I and II, and Media Professions.
He was also a co-founder, with fellow Hall of Achievement inductee Professor Tom Wheeler, of Flux, the school’s award-winning student magazine, which he advised for many years. Through his support, advising, and design mentoring, Bill was instrumental in the creation of another award-winning student magazine, Korean Ducks, which evolved into Ethos, focused on diversity and ethnicity.
Bill’s teaching evaluation scores were consistently high. Students commented about his dedication, extensive knowledge and expertise, preparation, charisma, and effectiveness in the classroom. His colleagues emphasize how ”fired up” he got his students to do exceptional work. Many of Bill’s students won national design and photography awards and landed jobs in advertising or publication design.
At the UO, Bill was a recipient of the prestigious campus-wide Ersted Award, and he also received SOJC’s Jonathan Marshall Award for Innovation in Teaching.
Bill consistently advocated for students of color, international students, and students with disabilities, working to maximize students’ success through inclusion, both conceptually and in practice.
Beyond the UO, Bill was a Fulbright professor for a year and a senior fellow and visiting professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He also spent a term teaching in a UO study-abroad program in Paderno del Grappa, Italy, and was a Mellon Fellow at the University of Kansas.
Bill is the author of five editions of the landmark textbook on design and visual communication, Graphic Communications Today. Recent publication projects include Learning to See: A Guide to Visual Literacy and Photography in the Age of Convergence. He also designed several academic journals, including Visual Communication Quarterly. He co-authored other texts, contributed chapters to many more, and published numerous magazine articles, poems, and short stories. His photography was also featured in multiple exhibitions.
Bill consulted widely on visual design at the highest levels of corporate and nonprofit organizations. He is the founder, director, and designer for his own advertising and design agency, Orion.
“Bill Ryan has spent his life as the consummate professor: dedicated, demanding, devoted,” said Leslie Steeves, SOJC senior associate dean and professor. “He is legendary for sending students back out to hit the story again, to make the photograph better, to ace the design, to nail the proverbial butterfly to the wall. And they did.”
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