Graphic Design

Now In Production

September 29, 2012 - January 6, 2013

: David Bennewith Churchward International Typefaces 2009 Photo by Franz Vos, Jan van Eyck Academie, Courtesy the artist. Copyright: David Bennewith.; Justin Manor, John Rothenberg, and Eric Gunther Set Top Box 2010 Courtesy Sosolimited Copyright: Sosolimited.; Dexter Sinister We Would Like to Share (Some Thoughts on a Possible School Badge) 2006 Courtesy the artists. Copyright: Dexter Sinister; Peter Buchanan-Smith Best Made Company, American Felling Acts 2009 Courtesy Best Made Products. Copyright: Best Made Products.; Experimental Jetset Statement and Counter-Statement 2011 Courtesy the artists. Copyright: Experimental Jetset.; Mike Perry Eames Eiffel Side Chair 2010 Courtesy the artist and Outdoorz Gallery Copyright: Mike Perry & Outdoorz Gallery.; Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Graphic Design: Now in Production September 30, 2012-January 6, 2013 Photography by Brian Forrest; Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Graphic Design: Now in Production September 30, 2012-January 6, 2013 Photography by Brian Forrest; Installation view at the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Graphic Design: Now in Production September 30, 2012-January 6, 2013 Photography by Brian Forrest

This major international exhibition explores how graphic design has broadened its reach over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely used tool. With the rise of accessible creative software and innovations in publishing and distribution systems, people outside the field are mobilizing the techniques and processes of design to create and publish visual media. At the same time, graphic designers are becoming producers, deploying their creative skills as makers of content and shapers of experiences. Featuring work produced since 2000 in the most vital sectors of communication design, Graphic Design: Now in Production explores design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, posters, and branding programs, showcasing recent developments in the field, such as the entrepreneurial nature of designer-produced goods; the renaissance in digital typeface design; the storytelling potential of titling sequences for film and television; and the transformation of raw data into compelling information narratives.

Organized by the Walker Art Center and the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, Graphic Design: Now in Production is the largest museum exhibition on the subject since the Walker’s seminal 1989 exhibition Graphic Design in America: A Visual Language History, and the Cooper-Hewitt’s 1996 comprehensive survey, Mixing Messages: Graphic Design in Contemporary Culture.

Teacher Resource Guide
This resource guide is meant to supplement a visit to the exhibition. It includes an activity for before a visit to the Hammer Museum to acquaint students with the fundamentals of graphic design, discussion questions for groups while at the Hammer, as well as an individual worksheet of reflection questions. Finally, it includes activity guides that go beyond the exhibition to expand students’ knowledge. The guide also details the specific thematic sections that the exhibition is broken into.

Graphic Design: Now in Production is co-organized by the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, and the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York. Lead curators are Andrew Blauvelt, curator of architecture and design at the Walker Art Center, and Ellen Lupton, senior curator of contemporary design at Cooper-Hewitt.

The Hammer’s presentation is organized by Brooke Hodge, director, exhibitions management and publications.