Michael Rock And Rick Poynor Discuss The Purposes And Possibilities Of Design March 28, 2007

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) and Boston Chapter of the AIGA present a discussion between 2x4’s Michael Rock and design writer Rick Poynor, as part of a series of talks exploring contemporary design. They will explore recent examples of graphic design, questioning and challenging conventional ideas about purposes and possibilities. The talk, “Between Art and Commerce: A Design Paradox,” will be held at the ICA on Wednesday, March 28, at 6:30 pm. Tickets: $12 general admission; $8 members, seniors and students. Tickets can be purchased at icaboston.org, the ICA box office during regular museum hours or one hour before the program, or by phone at 617-478-3103.

Design occupies a central place in everyday life. Rock and Poynor examine the role of the designer in a world where commerce and culture are increasingly intertwined, questioning whether design can be considered a form of content in its own right. What are the possibilities for designers to add extra layers of meaning in their projects or to generate original content of their own?

Michael Rock is a founding partner and creative director at 2x4 and Professor of Design at the Yale University School of Art. At 2x4, he leads a wide range of projects including strategy for Prada and art direction for the Harvard Project on the City in collaboration with AMO/Rem Koolhaas. Previously he was co-founder of Information Incorporated in Boston and Adjunct Professor of Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design. He was a fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and a contributing editor and graphic design journalist at I.D. magazine. His writing on design has appeared in Print, AIGA Journal and the British journal Eye. He is the recipient of the 1999/2000 Rome Prize in Design from the American Academy in Rome. In 2005, 2x4 was the subject of a solo exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and they are the recipients of the 2006 National Design Award from the Cooper Hewitt/Smithsonian National Design Museum.

Rick Poynor was founding editor of Eye magazine from 1990 to 1997. He writes columns for Eye and for Print, and he has covered design, media and visual culture for Blueprint, Frieze, I.D., Icon, Domus, Metropolis, Adbusters, Harvard Design Magazine, The Guardian, and many other publications. His books include Typography Now: The Next Wave (1991), Design Without Boundaries (1998), Typographica (2001), Obey the Giant: Life in the Image World (2001), and No More Rules: Graphic Design and Postmodernism (2003). In 2003, he co-founded Design Observer, a weblog for design discussion. In 2004, he was curator of the traveling exhibition Communicate: Independent British Graphic Design since the Sixties at the Barbican Art Gallery, London. He is a research fellow at the Royal College of Art in London, and he lectures widely about design in Europe, the U.S., Australia, and China.

The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the Boston Chapter of the American Institute for Graphic Arts (AIGA) present a speaker series in which design critics and practitioners examine new influences in contemporary culture through a series of talks, conversations, and forums. The next talk, on May 9, will feature Debbie Millman and Antenna Design.

Official Website: http://www.icaboston.org