Rate My Professor Robert Finkel

Finkel's creative scholarship has garnered significant recognition. He received a $5,000 Design Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts for his artistic merit, career achievement, professional development, and service to the state. Graphic Design USA named him an Educator to Watch in 2018 and awarded him a 2022 American Graphic Design Award for his comprehensive branding and wayfinding signage system for the 127-mile Red Rock Trail System in Jefferson County, Alabama, which included strategic messaging, logos, map kiosks, interpretive signs, and trail blazes. Additional honors include a win in the 2023 Graphis Design Competition and a GDUSA award. Notable publications include co-authoring the book The IBM Poster Program: Visual Memoranda, published by Lund Humphries in 2021 following three years of archival research. Key design projects feature the Selma Bloody Sunday Foot Soldiers exhibition, Alabama’s Gulf State Park Signage and Trail Map, Lee County Remembrance Project, Taco Bay branding, and The Retreat Day Spa identity. Finkel has served as a juror for the University & College Designers Association and led initiatives such as reviving the CADC SHOWCASE exhibition in 2025 to highlight creative scholarship.