These two posters, recently found deep within one of our flat file drawers, demonstrate an unusual application of the Walker commissioned typeface designed by Matthew Carter.
These intriguing posters were somewhat of a mystery until recently when we discovered (with some investigative help from a former member of the Walker studio) that each poster was designed by a Japanese designer in collaboration with Carter for use in an exhibition of Carter’s work. Titled, Matthew Carter’s Type Game: A New Identity of the Walker Art Center, this exhibition took place in 1997 at the Morisawa Typography Space in Tokyo, Japan.
Design: Yutaka Satoh
Design: Kouga Hirano
Now accepting applications–deadline: June 9, 2008
Since 1980, the Walker Art Center Design department has maintained a graphic design fellowship program that provides recent graduates (both undergrad and grad) the opportunity to work in a professional design studio environment. Selected from a highly competitive pool of applicants, fellows represent a diverse range of graphic design programs, such as Art Center College of Design, California College of Art, California Institute of the Arts, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Eastern Michigan University, Minneapolis College of Art and Design, NC State University, Rhode Island School of Design, Royal College of Art, Werkplaats Typografie, and Yale University, among many others.
Fellows are employed full-time for one year and are assigned a wide range of graphic design projects from developing graphic identities for specific programs and exhibitions, including the design of all related collateral materials, to assisting the design director and other designers with long-term projects such as exhibition catalogues and promotional campaigns. Fellows are involved in all aspects of the design process, including client meetings and presentations through production and supervision of printing (a small sampling of projects executed by Walker Design Fellows between the years 1999 and 2008 are pictured above).
How to apply
Please submit a letter of interest, a résumé with the names and contact information of three references, a portfolio containing 8–10 examples of graphic design work, and a self-addressed, stamped envelope for the return of your portfolio (if desired) to:
Design Department
Walker Art Center
1750 Hennepin Avenue
Minneapolis, MN 55403
2008/2009 Fellowship deadline: June 9, 2008
All candidates will be notified of their application status by July 31. No phone calls please.
For more information please visit the Design Fellowship page on the Walker Art Center Design website here.
For 20 years, the Walker's Out There Festival has brought provocative and unexpected theatrical experiences to the Twin Cities. Featuring artists who mix movement, media, text, styles, visual culture, and technology with abandon, Out There has always been a visually and conceptually rich project for the Design Department to undertake.
Through its first 17 years, the festival’s vehicle for promotion was a newspaper insert:
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During its 18th year (and the subsequent years to follow) the piece became a more traditional mailer:
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This year’s piece, while still remaining true to format, moved from a gatefold to resemble something more like a miniature poster. It was printed 5/2 on Kromekote which is cast coated and allows for one side (the 2 color side) to be uncoated while the other side (5 color) gets the coated treatment:
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The font of choice was Guillaume Grall’s Jodie Foster Typeface for Posters:
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…and while on the topic of the Jodie Foster Typeface for Posters, we were wondering what it might look like if it was used in the original promotional material for Jodie Foster’s 1991 appearance at the Walker, so I whipped up a little something in like 2 seconds:
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HOT. Finally; in rooting around through the archives I stumbled upon a couple older Out There pieces that were so very nineties (in a GOOD way). Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any design credit information for either of these two but figured they were still worth highlighting. It’s always fun to see Walker in action:
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img. 1: Out There 17 (2004) designed by Scott Ponik
img. 2: Out There 18 (2005) designed by Matt Rezac
img. 3: Out There 19 (2006) designed by Layla Tweedie-Cullen
img. 4/5: Out There 20 (2007) designed by Vance Wellenstein
img. 6: Jodie Foster Typeface for Posters designed by Guillaume Grall
img. 7: The original Jodie Foster, Growing Up On-Screen (1991) retrospective catalog designed by Brian Boyce
img. 8: Jodie Foster, Growing Up On-Screen retrospective catalog with edited type treatment
img. 9: Out There 7 (1995) designer unknown
img. 10: Out There 10 (1998) designer unknown
above: 1999 / 2000 internship poster designed by Daniel Eatock and Erin Mulcahy. A (literal) survey of one year’s worth of work as a WAC Design Intern.
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Each year the studio creates a poster calling for applicants for the Walker Art Center Design Fellowship. Looking ahead to this project next spring with Ryan “Bust Azz” Nelson I raised the idea to Emmet about how this might be worth highlighting in a flat files post. He brought up an interesting point about how he thought Daniel Eatock and Erin Mulcahy’s 1999 internship poster had created something of a precedent by choosing to visually illustrate the 12 months worth of work completed by the fellows in order to advertise the position. Not every poster since then has reacted to this idea, but here are four that have:
above: 2002 / 2003 internship poster designed by Alex DeArmond and Alejandro Quinto. Though still representing every project created during their twelve month tenure, this approach does so by mapping the intern’s production schedule (magenta represents a project designed by one intern, blue the other intern).
above: 2004 / 2005 internship poster design by Emmet Byrne and Silas Munro. The amalgamation of one years worth of work is represented by each and every vector illustration used over the course of their year at the Walker. The device used to zoom in on the “bits” (see detail) helps contextualize the seemingly insignificant illustrations by highlighting among other things the format, dimensions and client the piece was created for.
above: 2006 / 2007 fellowship poster designed by Scott Ponik and Mathew Rezac. A more literal survey of the work (in their case 2 years worth) by featuring selected projects. I’ve always been intrigued (and maybe a little too insecure to ask) if there is an underlying message implied in how they are positioned in relation to the work (as if they are redefining the grid?).
above: 2007 / 2008 fellowship poster designed by Layla Tweedie-Cullen and Jayme Yen. A year’s work is articulated through every logotype used for projects during their fellowship.
This subject seemed most appropriate for the first Flat Files post. I’m excited about this section of the blog because it’s going to give me a legitimate excuse to spend more time rooting through the archives . . .
Fax from Matthew Carter to then WAC Design Director Laurie Haycock Makela regarding the 1995 commissioned Walker typeface. The typeface which for years “ran through the system like blood,” as Laurie put it, is now “ embedded in the graphic DNA of the Walker,” according to Andrew Blauvelt.
Check it: Article further detailing the Walker typeface on the WAC Design site.
