20th Anniversary of Walker Art Center/AIGA Insights Series Features Some of the World's Most Innovative Designers

On Tuesdays, March 7, 14, 21, and 28, the Walker Art Center and AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts) Minnesota Chapter present

20 Years of Design: Insights ‘06

. This year’s Insights lecture series—featuring the work of some of the world’s most innovative designers—celebrates 20 years of bringing leading practitioners to the Twin Cities. Taking a broader view, the speakers bring design into business planning and brand development, aspire to impact commerce as well as culture, offer intelligent and innovative work for cultural clients, and help spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. This year’s series includes talks by Bill Grant from Grant Design Collaborative in Canton, Georgia (March 7); Richard Boynton and Scott Thares from Minneapolis-based Wink (March 14); Linda van Deursen and Armand Mevis from Amsterdam (March 21); and New York-based Chip Kidd (March 28).

The 7 pm lectures take place in the Walker Cinema. Individual tickets are $24 ($12 Walker and AIGA members; full-time students) and series tickets are $80 ($40). Tickets may be purchased at walkerart.org/tickets or by calling 612.375.7600.

March 7

Bill Grant, Grant Design Collaborative

Bill Grant founded his studio in Canton, Georgia, in 1996 and has since developed a roster of Fortune 500 clients and a reputation for successfully integrating design into business planning and brand development. Grant Design Collaborative specializes in developing comprehensive design strategies, advocating a “product to market” approach for companies such as Adobe Systems, Herman Miller, Steelcase, and Smart Papers. Their award-winning designs span all media and dimensions, from Web sites to advertising and from the printed page to the showroom floor. In addition to his practice, Grant has been a committed AIGA member, serving on the board of directors for both the Atlanta and national chapters, and was recently elected president of the latter. Author of the AIGA’s Business and Ethical Expectations for Professional Designers, he chaired GAIN, the 2002 AIGA Business and Design Conference. Grant also assisted in curriculum development for and attended the inaugural
AIGA Harvard Business School program entitled “Business Perspectives for Design Leaders.”
www.grantcollaborative.com

March 14

Richard Boynton and Scott Thares, Wink

Richard Boynton and Scott Thares founded the Minneapolis-based design firm Wink in 2000, after first crossing paths while working at Design Guys. Wink aspires to impact commerce as well as culture by creating resonating relationships between people and products. The firm’s projects include brand identities and systems, packaging, annual reports, brochures, promotions, print and television ads, architectural signage, and Web sites. Their clients include Target, Marshall Field’s, Nike, American Eagle Outfitters, Turner Classic Movies, the New York Times, AIGA, Chronicle Books, and MTV. Their work has received recognition in such publications as Communication Arts, Print, Graphis, ID, HOW, and STEP and from AIGA, the New York Art Directors Club, the Type Directors Club, and others.
www.wink-mpls.com

March 21

Armand Mevis and Linda van Deursen, Mevis & Van Deursen

Graphic designers Linda van Deursen and Armand Mevis live and work in Amsterdam, where they began their collaboration after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1986. Mevis & Van Deursen have been influential in the development of contemporary Dutch design and are known for their intelligent and innovative work for cultural clients, producing the new identity of the Stedlijk Museum, publications for fashion duo Victor & Rolf, and numerous books on architecture and design. They also have worked on several Dutch cultural publications, including Metropolis M, and won the competition for the graphic identity for the City of Rotterdam as a designated Cultural Capital of Europe. Their work has been shown in museums and educational institutions throughout the world. Van Deursen serves as head of the Graphic Design Department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, while Mevis is a design critic at the Werkplaats Typografie, Arnhem; both are critics at Yale University’s School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Their long and prolific collaboration has been documented in the book Recollected Work: Mevis & Van Deursen (Artimo, 2005). A book-signing follows the lecture.
www.designmuseum.org/design/index.php?id=42

March 28

Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is a writer and graphic designer who lives and works in New York City. Since 1986 his book jacket designs for Alfred A. Knopf have helped spawn a revolution in the art of American book packaging. His work has been profiled in such publications as Vanity Fair, Entertainment Weekly, the New Republic, Time, the New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Out, and New York magazines. Kidd has written about graphic design and popular culture for McSweeney’s, Vogue, Details, Arena, 2WICE, the New York Post, ID, and Print magazines. His books include Batman Collected (Bulfinch, 1996), Batman Animated (HarperCollins, fall 1998), The Cheese Monkeys (Scribner, 2001)—perhaps the first successful novel employing graphic design as an integral part of its subject—and Peanuts: The Art of Charles M. Schulz (Pantheon, 2001). As an editor of books of comics for Pantheon, Kidd has worked extensively with some of the most brilliant talents practicing today, including Chris Ware, Art Spiegelman, Dan Clowes, Kim Deitch, Charles Burns, Mark Beyer, Ben Katchor, and Alex Ross. His designs have been described as “monstrously ugly” (John Updike), “apparently obvious” (William Boyd), “faithful flat-earth rendering” (Don DeLillo), “surprisingly elegant” (A.S. Mehta), “a distinguished parochial comic balding Episcopal priest” (Allan Gurganus), “two colors plus a sash” (Martin Amis), and “not a piece of hype. My book was lucky.” (Robert Hughes). The monograph CHIP KIDD: BOOK ONE was published by Rizzoli International in 2005. A book-signing follows the lecture.
www.goodisdead.com