In 2011, SVA won more Type Directors Club Awards than all other institutions combined, claiming 24 out of the 36 awards given for student projects. SVA also took home more TDC Awards than all professional firms in the running. The Type Directors Club is an international organization that promotes excellence in typography and awards are given annually in recognition of outstanding typeface design.
Illustrator, author and SVA alumnus Joanna Neborsky (MFA 2009 Illustration as Visual Essay) was interviewed by Yuri Chong for The New York Times Style Magazine recently. In her introduction, Chong described Neborsky as an artist “who likes to pair her lush, vividly colored imagery with plenty of dry wit. Her kooky aesthetic—part yellowing newspaper cutouts, part inky freehand brushstrokes—and clever way with words feels reminiscent of that special strain of illustrators like Leanne Shapton, Maira Kalman and Lauren Redniss, artists who write as well as they draw.”
The reference to MFA Design Department faculty member Maira Kalman was fitting, as Neborsky refers to her as “my mentor.” In fact, Kalman was her adviser at SVA and helped her get her senior thesis, Illustrated Three-Line Novels, published in 2010.
Neborsky also discussed the children’s book she illustrated last year, Tumbling Old Women, by the 20th-century Russian author Daniil Kharms, as well as her upcoming project with Joe Berkowitz, who writes for The Awl. As for her influences: “I love Antonio Frasconi, a great Italian dude. Jean Cocteau. The best children’s book I have ever read is The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine by Donald Barthelme. It’s the most ridiculous story. I love Sister Corita Kent. I can’t make anything even close to what she made because she was a genius,” Neborsky said.
In front of a standing room-only audience, MFA Design Department Co-chairs Steven Heller and Lita Talarico led a lively discussion about their new book Typography Sketchbooks (Princeton Architectural Press) at The New York Public Library’s Berger Forum on Wednesday, January 11. They were joined by several contributors to the book (which features 118 designers in all), including alumni Travis Cain (MFA 2004 Design) and Matt Luckhurst (MFA 2010 Design), MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department faculty member Viktor Koen, and Purgatory Pie Press duo Esther K. Smith and Dikko Faust.
Heller started the evening with a slideshow and enthusiastically praised the work featured in the book—“It transcends what’s on the screen.” He applauded both the refined and the very rough starts of the field of typography and demonstrated that “(typefaces) can represent things in the street that have nothing to do with typefaces.” Koen talked about his early distaste for sketches during his student years (one of his teachers required seven additional sketches in addition to final assignments), but said he soon began to appreciate sketching as an important part of the design process. Cain, currently the Art Director for Kiehl’s, said that because he focuses on easily readable type for Kiehl’s health and beauty products, in his spare time, he gravitates to “typography that doesn’t concern itself (with) whether the viewer can read it.”
Wearing a t-shirt displaying his students’ proofs, BFA Fine Arts Department faculty member and “Letterpress” instructor Faust presented with his professional and personal partner Smith. While showing the audience some of the process behind the duo’s Purgatory Pie Press, Smith emphatically stated that Faust hated Helvetica. The evening’s last presentation was from Luckhurst, who got into design via graffiti work. “Sketches don’t need to have an intent, other than to be sketches. Not to say they can’t, but it is novel to have a place to let the mind and hand wander,” he says in Typography Sketchbooks.
Current MFA Design students Lizzy Showman and Kathleen Fitzgerald have created an ideal gift for NYC bus drivers—a customized seat cushion. A video of the students handing out the padded presents to unsuspecting drivers on the M15 line, which runs from East Harlem to South Ferry in Manhattan, was recently featured on CNN iReport and has been making the rounds online. The project, entitled I Heart M15, was conceived by the up-and-coming designers for faculty member Stefan Sagmeister’s course“Can Design Touch Someone’s Heart?”
“Not only is the M15 line the second busiest in the nation, it is also a big part of our own daily commute,” Showman said. “Witnessing the long hours and sometimes hectic atmosphere the M15 bus drivers experience is part of the reason we connected with the bus line and decided to do something to show our appreciation.”
Ali Eng (BFA 2011 Advertising) and Virgillio Tzaj (current student, BFA Advertising and Graphic Design) recently joined forces to form Citizens for Optimism, a team made up of over a dozen up-and-coming designers from the SVA community with the goal of promoting happiness through design. For their debut exhibition at Type Directors Club over the summer, the group asked New Yorkers to provide words they associate with optimism, which were then used as inspiration for the typographically illustrated posters created for the show.
On Friday, December 9 from 6 – 9pm at Brooklyn Collective, 212 Columbia Street, Brooklyn, Citizens for Optimism returns with a new exhibit of positive prints. Included in the show are works by Michelle Alvarez (BFA 2011 Graphic Design), Jason Arias (BFA 2011 Graphic Design), Julia Coelho (BFA 2011 Graphic Design), Phil DiBello (BFA 2011 Graphic Design), Colin Kinsley (BFA 2011 Graphic Design),Alex Kirhzner(BFA 2002 Graphic Design), Devin Washburn (BFA 2011 Graphic Design), and Leen Sadder (current student, MFA Design), as well current BFA Advertising and Graphic Design students Santiago Carrasquilla,Min Choi,Pedro Delkan, Joe Hollier, Aimee Hunt, Pedro Messias, and Rachel Willey.
MFA Design Department Co-chair Lita Talarico was part of a select group of experts invited to speak at the third gathering of design educators in Madrid, Spain recently. The Biennal event focused on design as it relates to the future of higher learning. To read more about it, visit the MFA Design blog.
Members of the SVA community were inducted into the prestigious Art Directors Club Hall of Fame recently at a black-tie gala in New York City, emceed by MFA Design Department Co-chair Steven Heller. MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department Chair Marshall Arisman and John C. Jay (who has taught in the BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department) both received the honor, and now join the company of Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, and Charles and Ray Eames.
In addition, Paola Antonelli, faculty member of the MFA Design Criticism and MFA Products of Design Departments, as well as senior curator of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art, received the ADC Manship Medallion, which recognizes curatorial excellence. The 2011 ADC Hall of Fame Selection Committee was co-chaired by ADC board members Janet Froelich, creative director, Real Simple and an ADC Hall of Fame laureate, and SVA Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes.
“Ideopolis,” the collection of innovative thesis projects by 2011 graduates of the MFA Design Department, heads to Japan for an exhibition at the Ginza Graphic Gallery, which has hosted past shows by MFA Illustration as Visual Essay Department Chair Marshall Arisman and MFA Design Department faculty member Stefan Sagmeister. Opening November 4 and on view through November 26, “Ideopolis” at GGG will feature multi-platform media installations for all 20 of the interactive works.
Some project highlights include WeDo by Wes Gott, a Web-based calendar application that connects users online and encourages them to participate in cultural activities offline; Fuzz Bucket by Jennie Glaser, a traveling yarn shop and community knitting project; Seize Your Power Days by Lydia Reynolds, a campaign and Web site created to empower young adult women through basic knowledge about their bodies; Milestones by Andy Sir, a desktop accessory that manages, organizes and stores digital assets including images, videos and music; Arlequin by Jules Tardy, an online channel that promotes alternative European culture; and ROWAN by Lauren Wolff, a clothing line for young adults with tactile sensitivity, a common symptom for people on the autism spectrum.
MFA Design Department Co-chair Lita Talarico kicks off the exhibition with a talk at GGG on November 4 (watch video below, lecture begins at the 8:04 mark). For more information about all of the projects featured in the show, visit the Ideopolis Web site.
Paula Scher MAPS: Paintings, Installations, Drawings, and Prints (Princeton Architectural Press 2011) by Paula Scher (Masters Series laureate and former BFA Advertising and Graphic Design Department faculty member): In the early 1990s, celebrated graphic designer Paula Scher began painting maps of the world as she saw it. The larger her canvases grew, the more expressionistic her geographical visions became. Collected here for the first time, Paula Scher MAPS presents 39 of her creations. The forward of the book is titled “All Maps Lie,” an assertion directly from Scher that seems to celebrate the accuracy of maps despite their inherent distortion. To read a recent interview with Scher by MFA Design Department co-chair Steven Heller, visit The Atlantic.
Keith Haring Exhibition and Pop Shop at Pace Prints, 521 West 26 Street, through December 3: This exhibition of prints and small-scale multiples by Keith Haring (1979 Fine Arts) features works created by the artist between 1983 and 1990. For the occasion, Pace Prints has also set up a Pop Shop, which, in addition to prints, offers Haring-inspired footwear by British shoe designer Nicholas Kirkwood, as well as Haring-inspired apparel and accessories by New York stylist Patricia Field.
Forged (Revere Pictures, LLC 2010) directed by William Wedig (BFA 2006 Film and Video): After a jam packed summer full of screenings and a major city tour with stops in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami, William Wedig’s film Forged is now available on DVD. Set in the cold and rusty town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, Forged follows ex-con Chuco (Manny Perez) on his quest to redeem himself after committing a horrific sin against his son, Machito (David Castro). Watch the trailer for Forged below.
MFA Design Department Co-chair Lita Talarico was the MC of this year’s Adobe Design Achievement Awards (ADAA) ceremony, which was held in Taipei, Taiwan in collaboration with the International Council of Graphic Design Associations (ICOGRADA). Of the more than 4,600 entries received, only 42 finalists were chosen for the ADAA, which honor the most talented student graphic designers, photographers, illustrators, animators, digital filmmakers, developers, and computer artists from higher education institutions worldwide who have created projects using Adobe software.
Another member of the SVA community, MFA Interaction Design Department Chair Liz Danzico, served as a judge for the ADAA competition. “Over the years, the tools themselves have become so sophisticated that the students are able to realize their ideas in a much more sophisticated way than ever before,” said Danzico. “This competition showcases those great ideas that are expressed with a high level of technical ability.”
Image: Lita Talarico at the Adobe Design Achievement Awards.
In 2011, SVA won more Type Directors Club Awards than all other institutions combined, claiming 24 out of the 36 awards given for student projects. SVA also took home more TDC Awards than all professional firms in the running. The Type Directors Club is an international organization that promotes excellence in typography and awards are given annually in recognition of outstanding typeface design.
