In celebration of Open Education Week 2026, the Senate of College Councils and UT Libraries partnered to ask students to nominate instructors who have positively impacted their educational experience through their use of free or low-cost materials. We’ll be recognizing a few of our nominees this week as Affordable Education Champions! More information about this program can be found on our LibGuides page, as well as in our overview post about our 2026 Champions.
Today, we congratulate and thank Carley Law, who was nominated by her Images in Communication (DES 321) and her Typography I (DES 325) students in the Design Department in the College of Fine Arts.
Carley Law grew up in the Chicagoland area and received her BFA in Graphic Design from the University of Iowa. She went on to receive a MA and MFA in Graphic Design from the University of Iowa, with a secondary emphasis in Printmaking. Carley also holds a Graduate Certificate in Book Arts and Book Technologies from the University of Iowa Center for the Book (UICB). Carley’s passion for teaching grew exponentially while she was an instructor of record during graduate school. Her love of letterpress printing is thanks to her mentor professors and the UICB faculty. Before moving to Austin, Carley was an Assistant Professor of Graphic Design at Missouri Valley College in Marshall, MO. She later taught typography courses at St. Edwards while working professionally as a Master Printer for a stationery shop in south Austin until she joined the Design faculty at the University of Texas at Austin in fall 2023. Carley’s academic research combines analog printmaking methods and digital technologies to enhance student learning outcomes. Carley’s teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of the design process, working in collaboration with old and new production technologies, and building a strong classroom community. Carley works closely with the Rob Roy Kelly American Wood Type Collectionthe RRK) both in and out of her courses. She firmly believes that letterpress printing is for everyone and sharing that knowledge is the surest way to keep this historic practice alive. Carley collaborates with fellow Design staff and faculty to develop events and programs centered around the RRK Collection to spread knowledge of wood type and letterpress printing.
We asked Carley what led her to select free and low-cost materials for her courses. She told us:
Throughout grade school and high school, I was a part of free and reduced lunch programs. My mom was a single parent and worked hard to provide for my younger sister and me. That program in addition to SNAP provided stability which allowed my sister and I to focus on schoolwork and extracurriculars. The assistance from those programs massively impacted my outlook on life: I wanted to provide support and a sense of stability for others in my future career path.
As an undergraduate design student, I remember assignments and projects that required the use of extra materials—things like blank containers for branding projects, high-quality paper for packaging design, and the printing of large-format posters. Those extra materials weren’t explicitly required but strongly suggested by professors to elevate our projects. My university distributed a small amount of money from our tuition/course fees every semester for digital printing, but as design students, we went through that allowance within the few first weeks of classes. We paid for each print (including any mistakes or misprints) which quickly became expensive. I had multiple jobs during undergrad so I could afford printing, project materials, and anything else that I needed for my assignments.
Now that I am a graphic design instructor, I strive to help my students throughout their academic careers. I provide materials, design and assemble workbooks and bring various project essentials to class for students. My hope in doing this is that students get excited about the design process and creating without the stress of finding materials. It’s my goal to make sure that students enrolled in my courses have the same opportunities to fully realize their projects. I’ve found that providing materials also aids in evaluation; it allows students to focus on giving helpful feedback centered on the concept and principles used in the work itself, not if one student had “better” materials than another.
When asked if she noticed a change in student response when shifting from more expensive course materials to free and low-cost materials, Carley responded:
Absolutely, I noticed a significant shift in the quality of student work and responses when I provided affordable/free materials. For example, in my Images and Communication sections last fall, I assign projects that mix digital and physical deliverables. One of the assignments is the “USPS Forever Stamp Booklet Design” project. For this project, students are instructed to follow the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee guidelines and create a stamp booklet with four different stamp designs in the booklet. The physical final deliverable is a printed stamp booklet, but on adhesive/sticker paper to create physical mockups. Some roadblocks from past semesters were printing high-resolution booklets on this kind of paper, the cost and finding sticker paper nearby, and die cutting the stamp outlines to name a few. I researched materials I could access and the resources available within the College of Fine Arts. My department supported my purchase request of a roll of white, printable adhesive vinyl for my two sections to use in the DFA Foundry. We then as a class took our projects to the Foundry and printed with Foundry staff on their specialty large format Roland vinyl cutter and printer. It was a great experience; I love collaborating with the Foundry for my courses. The students were able to learn about large format printing while seeing the production process in real time. The final stamp booklets looked phenomenal—they’re truly some of the best outcomes I’ve had from teaching this project. The students were very pleased they did not have to pay for their booklets and that they now had a high-quality project to include in their portfolios. Outcomes from another assignment, “Music Campaign Design”, far exceeded my expectations. Students were to create a campaign for an album or concert tour for their favorite artist or band. I went to Austin Creative Reuse and purchased some vinyl records, old blank CDs, and lanyards (for VIP backstage passes) to supplement the full scope of physical deliverables assigned. Students were then able to pick which type of media/materials they wanted to use in their campaign. The final projects were amazing! After seeing these results, I am excited and encouraged to continue providing materials to see what the next cohort of students will create.
Finally, Carley gave the following advice to any instructors considering changing their courses to free and low-cost materials:
Get creative and scrappy! Look around you, your department, and other departments, too. Are there resources or maker spaces that you can collaborate with to support student outcomes? I recommend asking your department how they might be able to support you supplying students with materials. Consider what’s around you that can be repurposed, recycled, or reused to apply to your coursework if purchasing isn’t an option. Can you build a project around what students already own that complements the principles and/or skills taught in a project? There are so many opportunities. I also look for open-source materials in library books, published articles online, e-publications, and databases like Open Access at UT. Other online locations are are.na and the Internet Archive. Leaning on your community is a fantastic resource and is something I’ve found to be immensely helpful in my endeavors in accessible materials. I often exchange projects, syllabi, and readings/etc. with my peers. Supplementing lessons with podcasts, video clips, museum visits and if possible, bringing in guest artists/speakers from that field are excellent ways to further student comprehension with low barriers to access, too!
Guest post by Audrey Waite, OER GRA
