Iris Sprague

Iris Sprague is a Product Design Leader and Award-winning Visual Designer currently serving as Senior Product Designer at Google while holding an adjunct faculty position in the Products of Design program at the School of Visual Arts (SVA). Her industry-academia hybrid career bridges cutting-edge SaaS product development with design education.

Her educational foundation includes a BFA from Montclair State University and an MFA in Products of Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art. This training underpins her expertise in creating human-centered digital experiences.

Ms. Sprague specializes in scalable design systems for B2B applications, with deep expertise in typography and visual communication. Her research interests span the intersection of product design, business strategy, and organizational dynamics, particularly examining how design leadership drives corporate innovation. She is recognized as a Lettering Aficionado with significant contributions to typographic practice.

Her publication portfolio reveals a consistent focus on operationalizing design value within corporate structures, with recent works analyzing design-business alignment, evidence-based UX decision frameworks, and collaboration strategies for solo designers. These contributions highlight her unique perspective bridging Silicon Valley product culture and academic design theory.

Notable recognitions include:

• Speaker at Type Brigade 32 (2016)
• Communication Arts Typographic Annual (2015)
• Featured in Women of Graphic Design (2015)
• Featured in The Daily Type (2015)
• Featured in Graphic Design: The New Basics (2015)

As an educator at SVA and former Lead Instructor at BrainStation, she mentors emerging designers in practical industry applications. Her Google role focuses on real-world product challenges rather than traditional academic grants, emphasizing immediate industry impact over theoretical research. She remains deeply embedded in the design community through speaking engagements and thought leadership.