The design profession encompasses its own range of subcultures. The stationery programs for two design firms, Modern Dog in Seattle and Skolos/Wedell in Boston, reveal the opposing manners in which designers can choose to represent themselves. The streetwise style of Modern Dog emulates the hard colors and brash typography used in urban music and theater promotions, while Skolos/Wedell's delicately detailed, lavishly produced letterhead design is steeped in the history of the avant-garde, from Cubism to the "new typography" of the 1970s and 1980s. [back] © Copyright 1996 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum

Modern Dog Stationery, 1993, offset lithograph Designer: Michael Strassburger (b. 1962) Publisher: Modern Dog, Seattle Collection Cooper­Hewitt, National Design Museum, Gift of Modern Dog Skolos/Wedell Stationery, 1990, offset lithograph Designer: Nancy Skolos (b. 1955) Publisher: Skolos/Wedell, Boston Collection Cooper­Hewitt, National Design Museum, Gift of the designer