Exterior view of Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, 2013. Photo by Max Fields.
Graphic Design – Now in Production
About
The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased to present Graphic Design-Now in Production, a major international exhibition that explores some of the most vibrant graphic design work produced since 2000, including posters, books, magazines, identity and branding, information graphics, typography and typefaces, and film and television title graphics. The exhibition is organized around eight themes: Posters, Magazines, Books, Information Design, Branding, Typography, Storefront, and Film and Television Titles. 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.
Graphic Design explores the worlds of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters; the expansion of branding programs for corporations, institutions, and subcultures; the entrepreneurial spirit of designer-produced goods; the renaissance in digital typeface design; the storytelling potential of film and television titling sequences; and the transformation of raw data into compelling information narratives.
“We are excited to bring this ambitious exhibition to Houston. Graphic Design highlights the many ways design impacts our everyday lives, from the magazines we’re compelled to buy in the checkout lanes to the objects we surround ourselves with at home and work. It’s an incredibly dynamic exhibition, and one that I think will inspire viewers to look at their surroundings a little more closely, maybe with a renewed appreciation for the details,” says CAMH Senior Curator Valerie Cassel Oliver.
Graphic design is the art and practice of visual communication. Designers use color, typography, images, symbols, and systems to make the surfaces around us come alive with meaning. Today the field is shifting and expanding in unprecedented ways as new technologies and social movements are changing the way people make and consume media. Public awareness of graphic design has grown enormously during the past two decades through the revolutions in desktop computing and networked communication, which have also fueled tremendous growth in the profession.
Organizers
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.
Support
The Houston presentation of Graphic Design—Now In Production is made possible by generous grants from the Susan Vaughan Foundation, Inc. and William F. Stern.
Exhibitions in the Brown Foundation Gallery at CAMH have been made possible by the patrons, benefactors and donors to the Museum’s Major Exhibition Fund: Major Patron – Chinhui Juhn and Eddie Allen, Fayez Sarofim, and Michael Zilkha. Patrons – Carol C. Ballard, Mr. and Mrs. I. H. Kempner III, Ms. Louisa Stude Sarofim and Mr. Wallace Wilson. Benefactors – George and Mary Josephine Hamman Foundation, Louise D. Jamail, Anne and David Kirkland, KPMG, LLP, Beverly and Howard Robinson, Andrew Schirrmeister III and Leigh and Reggie Smith. Donors – A Fare Extraordinaire, Anonymous, Bank of Texas, Bergner and Johnson Design, Jereann Chaney, Elizabeth Howard Crowell, Dillon Kyle Architecture, Sara Paschall Dodd, Ruth Dreessen and Thomas Van Laan, Marita andJ.B. Fairbanks, Jo and Jim Furr, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Brenda and William Goldberg, King & SpaldingL.L.P., Marley Lott, Belinda Phelps and Randy Howard, Phillips, Lauren Rottet, Susan Vaughan Foundation, Inc., and Karen and Harry Susman.