Blogs The Gradient

Stay warm. Insights design lectures are back!

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Insights, our annual graphic design lecture series, returns on Tuesday nights, starting tomorrow with Kevin Quealy and continuing during the next four weeks with Michael Hart, Julie Beeler, James Goggin, and Casey Caplow. Buy your tickets! These lectures will be webcast live and archived on the Walker Channel, where you can also view past lectures such as [...]

Insights, our annual graphic design lecture series, returns on Tuesday nights, starting tomorrow with Kevin Quealy and continuing during the next four weeks with Michael Hart, Julie Beeler, James Goggin, and Casey Caplow. Buy your tickets! These lectures will be webcast live and archived on the Walker Channel, where you can also view past lectures such as Experimental Jetset, Project Projects, Irma Boom, and many many more.

 

Tuesday, March 1: Kevin Quealey, New York Times Graphics Department

Quealey has created compelling information graphics for both print and online, including the interactive “You Fix the Budget” deficit and dynamic visualizations of the voting shifts in the 2010 Congressional elections, among many other works. The New York Times Graphics Department recently received the National Design Award in Communication Design. kevinquealy.com

 

Tuesday, March 8: Michael Hart, Mono

After successful careers at leading ad agencies, Michael Hart, Chris Lange, and James Scott founded Minneapolis-based Mono, a firm specializing in inventive communication solutions for a variety of clients, including Herman Miller, Apple, Blu Dot, Airstream, and USA Network. Mono was named Small Agency of the Year by Advertising Age in 2010. mono-1.com

 

Tuesday, March 15: James Goggin, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

James Goggin established Practise, a London-based studio that garnered acclaim for its work with clients such as Tate Modern, Channel 4, Artangel, and the Design Museum. He was art director of the British music magazine The Wire, has served as tutor at the Werkplaats Typografie in the Netherlands and at ECAL in Switzerland, and has written for publications such as Dot, Dot, Dot. In 2010, Goggin became director of design, print, and digital media at Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art. practise.co.uk

 

Tuesday, March 22: Julie Beeler, Second Story Interactive Studio

Since 1994, Julie Beeler, cofounder of Portland, Oregon’s Second Story, has become a leading developer of unique interactive solutions for a variety of clients. Known for its technical savvy and ability to craft compelling stories into immersive experiences, Second Story has won numerous awards and critical acclaim for its interactive installations, websites, motion graphics, and three-dimensional visualizations. secondstory.com

 

Tuesday, March 29: Casey Caplowe, Good

A three-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards, Good is a diverse enterprise with a printed magazine, a web platform, and a convener of events. With the tagline, “For People Who Give a Damn,” Good has become a catalyst for more socially engaged thinking around issues of health, food, the environment, and design. The Los Angeles–based Caplowe is a cofounder of Good and serves as creative director.www.good.is

 

CRYSTAL METH

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The DEATH of X led me to make X.  I found that the DEATH was not that of the form of X; the DEATH was/is in the heads of most people who attempt to X. The X is a mirror of the world. The world is falling apart.

The DEATH of X led me to make X.  I found that the DEATH
was not that of the form of X; the DEATH was/is in the heads of most
people who attempt to X.

The X is a mirror of the world.
The world is falling apart.

Archives: 1968–1972 Walker Performing Arts flyers

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1968 Here is another (slightly overwhelming) group of images from our archives: a series of performing arts pamphlets from the late 1960′s/early 70′s that roughly sticks to the same system. The earliest pamphlet is from April 1968, a black-and-white flier for JAZZ at the Guthrie (which turns out to be one of the most interesting [...]

1968

Here is another (slightly overwhelming) group of images from our archives: a series of performing arts pamphlets from the late 1960′s/early 70′s that roughly sticks to the same system. The earliest pamphlet is from April 1968, a black-and-white flier for JAZZ at the Guthrie (which turns out to be one of the most interesting of the bunch). The last pamphlet we could find was from March 1972 for Merce Cunningham and his dance company. (Hold your mouse over the cover images to see who the flier is promoting.)

The system began as a black-and-white, 5.5 x 8.5 single-fold pamphlet with the name and a high-contrast image of the act it was promoting on the cover. The insides usually remained entirely typographic with the back cover acting as an advertisement, usually for a local business (such as The Electric Fetus record store, which thankfully is still around today). Through ’69 the designers dabbled here and there with having a cover that relied solely on image and by 1970 that idea became part of the system. The first pamphlet of 1970 also began the implementation of a colored paper stock with a single color ink. The luscious design does its job perfectly: turning these gods of music into mythologized versions of themselves—a collection of portraits of living legends. 

1969

1970

1971

1972


BACKS & INSIDES

Doug Benidt, a curator here in Performing Arts, informed me that Sue Weil, in partnership with the Guthrie Theater, was responsible for booking these extraordinary shows such as The Who, Captain Beefheart, Silver Apples, Miles Davis, and The Beach Boys. As coordinator of Performing Arts, Weil had a unique relationship with many of the acts she brought to Minneapolis. She often invited the performers to stay at her home in Minnetonka, MN. The article also states that Weil “made a habit of attending to the personal needs, as well as professional ones, of visiting artists.” For instance when John Cage, a mushroom fancier, came to town she would make sure to have fresh mushrooms on hand. In a separate article in the Minneapolis Tribune from June, 1969 it mentions that when Pete Seeger came to town, she picked him up from the airport, drove him to his hotel and went home to bake him bread. When the Star asked Cage to contribute his thoughts on Weil, he obliged by submitting a poem which uses Weil’s name as its cruxL

Also, if you are wondering why the majority of the fliers have holes punched through them, it’s because years ago someone had archived them by putting them in 3-ring binders. That was before our stellar archivist, Jill, took over. Thanks Jill for letting us hold on to these for so long.