James Matthew Frantz

Education

• MFA, California State University, Fullerton
• BFA, Miami University

Expertise

• Graphic Design
• Digital Imaging
• Illustration
• Photography and Video
• Foundations and Interdisciplinary Media

Biography

Matt Frantz is a designer, artist, photographer, and educator with more than twenty years of college-level teaching experience. Before joining Murray State University, he served as Assistant Chair of Graphic Design + Digital Media and Digital Foundations Coordinator at Laguna College of Art + Design in California. He has also taught at California State University, Fullerton, Irvine Valley College, FIDM, Mesa College, and Southwestern College, with courses spanning graphic design, digital imaging, photography, video, web design, drawing, composition and color, and illustration. Of note, he developed and taught The Science of Sight, an interdisciplinary course examining human vision and perception and how they shape the way we see and interpret visual information.

Alongside his academic career, Matt has maintained a freelance art and design practice producing client work including logo design, album artwork, photography, web design, video, and other visual communication projects, with a particular focus on entertainers and performers. This ongoing professional work has helped keep his teaching connected to evolving tools, client expectations, and real-world creative practice.

Matt's creative practice spans design, photography, illustration, video, sound, motion graphics, and mixed media, with work exhibited in galleries and published in books and magazines. His teaching emphasizes visual communication, observation, experimentation, and the relationship between enduring design principles and evolving technologies. He is particularly interested in how ideas and processes transfer between disciplines and in helping students develop both strong conceptual thinking and the technical skills needed to realize their work.