To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. Niklaus Troxler (Swiss, b. 1947) designed this boldly colored poster in 2005 for the annual Willisau Jazz Festival, an event he co-founded in 1975. Here, Troxler engages...
To celebrate the opening of Saturated: The Allure and Science of Color (May 11, 2018-January 13, 2019), Object of the Day this month will feature colorful objects from the exhibition. Graphic designer Fanette Mellier (French, b. 1977) has a contemporary practice that frequently highlights process in the printed medium. Her stunning poster, Specimen, initially appears abstract. Dominated by...
This bold graphic work combines text and image in a call for solidarity with indigenous populations and resistance to their continued subjugation. Dominating the print is a depiction of a fearsome Aztec warrior, clad in a traditional jaguar costume and stabbing a prone Spanish soldier. Designer Lincoln Cushing (American, b. 1953) appropriated the image from...
Bill Brownlie, a long-time designer and car stylist for Chrysler, drafted this interior concept for a truck cab in 1952. His sectional depiction of the interior is composed to provide viewers with a glimpse through the passenger’s side door. The highly finished effect of the drawing, the result of using an airbrush and ink, gives...
From squash to cherries and peppers to pineapple, Marion Weeber’s button designs are as simple as they are charming. Her evocative shapes, bright colors, and whimsical stripe patterns unify this disparate array of fruits and vegetables, drawn in graphite and painted with watercolor. The buttons themselves were made of individually molded celluloid-a synthetic plastic. Cooper...
Good cheer abounds in this festive poster designed by graphic designer and educator Linda Powell. The poster is part of a set of four created to promote the 1978 Herman Miller Christmas Party. The beloved Zeeland, Michigan furniture company has a hearty tradition of exceptionally made products and innovative communication design, geared both outwardly, for...
Somersaulting with dopey glee, a group of kangaroos thump around, lapping up wine from gravity defiant glasses. Inebriated marsupials with bottles in their pouches? Such a zany scene is characteristic of the work of beloved graphic artist and designer Ronald Searle (British, active France, 1920-2011). His wry illustrations, ranging from caricature to cartoon and inspired...
Beneath a foreboding sky streaked with lightning, a figure wanders through a cemetery. Barefooted and dressed in a monk’s habit, he seems to be missing something. Quite literally, it may be his head, whose snarling visage is directed out at the viewer from the crook of this gruesome monastic’s left elbow. But who is this...
Set against a black background, this drawing of a cherry-red radio demands attention. Its oblong form and stepped surface are echoed by curving red lines that float above and beneath the body. These may be details, intended to show highlights that would be reflected on the curved surface, but there is also something less literal...
