Nick Kuder (American, b. 1981) is a graphic designer and visual artist whose work centers on procedural, system-generating systems. In February 2019 he began posting a series of ring-based glyphs to Instagram, work inspired by the grid-based Swiss design systems of Karl Gerstner and Armin Hofmann.
The system was built on a four-by-four grid of circles, an approach Kuder developed after encountering Gerstner's package designs for Teddymat detergent and, later, a diagram in Hofmann's Graphic Design Manual, Principles and Practice. His 2019 ring-based glyphs sit alongside Francis Picabia, László Moholy-Nagy and Hofmann in the lineage of influences credited with shaping Dmitri Cherniak's Ringers on Art Blocks. Kuder studied printmaking under the painter and printmaker Walter Feldman at Brown University during an independent study while attending the Rhode Island School of Design. He earned an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2009, working as a studio assistant for the painter Beverly Fishman during that time. He is based in Michigan, where he is an Associate Professor of Design, and previously taught in the Electronic Integrated Arts graduate program at Alfred University's New York State College of Ceramics.
