Author: Lily Gildor

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Image features a cream colored poster with an orange border and text, in the middle of which is a diagonally oriented black and white photograph of Philip Glass made up of tiny typographical symbols and letters. Please scroll down to read the blog post about this object.
A Performance Poster for Glass
In 1967, the composer and musician Philip Glass formed the Philip Glass ensemble in New York, a group of seven musicians playing keyboards and woodwinds, amplified through a mixer. Glass previously studied at the University of Chicago, Julliard and in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, but found himself frustrated with modern music. This dissatisfaction led him...
Image features a woven chair printed in white ink on a black background, while an abstracted shadow of white squares floats behind it. Each woven area illustrated slightly differently; the splat of the chair has a wider, lattice pattern, while the seat has a tightly woven cane.
Lattice Lithograph
In 1946, the twenty year old artist Ruth Asawa entered the renowned, experimental Black Mountain College, where she studied for three years under mentors such as Josef Albers, Merce Cunningham and Buckminster Fuller. Born in California to Japanese immigrants, Asawa spent her childhood working on her family’s farm, until 1942, when the entire Asawa family...
Poster depicts exterior (possibly a walled garden) with trees; "Midday," a yellow painted steel sculpture by Anthony Caro from 1960 on the left; on the right, a woman dressed in black holding a bag, she has a purple square on her body and a semi-circle covers her head (like an umbrella). Text in black, at center: Speak your own language / The Womens Graphic Center offers / two workshops with Frances Butler. / Sequential Design: The story in / folded turned or spaced pages. / Sundays, March 16 & 23, 1980 / 9-12 & 1-3 Fee: $30.00 / Experimental Color Printing. / Letterpress, collotype & stencil. / March 17-21, 9-12, 1-3. Fee: $60. / Women’s Graphic Center / at the Woman’s Building / 1727 N. Spring Street / Los Angeles, / CA 90012.
Speak your own Language
In celebration of Women’s History Month, March Object of the Day posts highlight women designers in the collection. “Images and words that reflect the authentic and varied life experiences of women are seldom valued or visible in public, printed communications, undermining our connection to the dominant culture. Lacking the graphic skills valued by that culture...
Take Me to Paradise
“One of my motives for becoming a graphic designer,” said the Japanese designer, Tadanori Yokoo, “was to make tourist posters. As a result, all my pieces end up looking like tourist posters. The only thing is that these posters are about places that don’t exist on earth. They may be about a lost paradise.”[1] Tadanori...
Faster, Higher, Stronger
In 1966, the influential German designer, Otl Aicher (1922–1991), was hired to design the 1972 Munich Olympic Games’ iconography, language, and overall graphic scheme. By this time, Aicher had worked to modernize brands like Braun (1956–66) and Lufthansa (1962–64) and was a co-founder of the Ulm College of Design, a school established upon a post-war...
Boisterous and Blazing
The 1967 “Summer of Love” in San Francisco ushered in a wave of music lovers, rock bands, and graphic artists. Psychedelia drifted through the air and inspired the creation of free-form, vibrant compositions in all creative fields. Concert posters became the relics of the San Francisco music scene, created to promote music and dance venues...
Clothespins Collage
“Sharp, brilliant colors skillfully combined or used with neutral tones provide excitement in an extensive collection of textiles introduced by Herman Miller Company…” describes the New York Times writer Betty Pipes of Alexander Girard’s debut textile collection in 1952.[1] Girard was a European trained architect who came to prominence in Detroit, where he established an...
The Invisible City
In 1972, The International Design Conference in Aspen (IDCA) appointed the architect Richard Saul Wurman as the program chairman for its annual symposium. As chairman, Wurman was responsible for choosing the conference’s theme and proposing the various programs, exhibitions, and discussion sessions. Wurman decided to depart from the IDCA’s standard exploration of practical design issues...
Children Go Modern
From the time she arrived in the United States from Budapest in 1913, Ilonka Karasz was a force in New York City’s creative circles. Karasz’s oeuvre is diverse; over the course of her sixty-year career, she created furniture, textiles, silver, wallpapers, ceramics, and illustrations. Between 1925 and 1973, Karasz illustrated 186 covers for the New...