Two short talks and a moderated conversation featuring graphic designers Richard Niessen and Craig Welsh will explore themes of ornament, type, and history in contemporary graphic design. Niessen’s poster series—Palace of Typographic Masonry—create intricate arrangements of text and pattern, and is now on view in Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial. Welsh collaborated with AIGA Gold Medalist Elaine Lustig Cohen to create Lustig Elements, a new typeface based on modular letterforms designed by Alvin Lustig in the 1930s. Alvin Lustig was inspired by Oliver Byrne’s 1847 printed masterpiece, The First Six Books of the Elements of Euclid. Moderated by Senior Curator of Contemporary Design Ellen Lupton.
Beauty—Cooper Hewitt Design Triennial is made possible by generous support from Edward and Helen Hintz, and Madeleine Rudin Johnson.
Additional funding is provided by Amita and Purnendu Chatterjee, August Heckscher Exhibition Fund, Margery and Edgar Masinter, May and Samuel Rudin Family Foundation, Inc., Ehrenkranz Fund, The Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation, Rockwell Group, Esme Usdan Exhibition Endowment Fund, and the Consulate General of Finland.
This program is supported as part of the Dutch Culture USA program by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York.
