Graphic Design—Now in Production

May 26 – Sept 3, 2012

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Open weekends and holiday Mondays, 10am to 6pm
Building 110, Governors Island, New York. (Directions and free ferry schedule)

Free Admission.
Co-organized by Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and the Walker Art Center, Graphic Design—Now in Production explores some of the most vibrant sectors and genres of graphic design today.

The rise of user-generated content, alternative methods of printing and distribution, and the wide dissemination of creative software have opened up new opportunities for design. Featuring works produced since 2000, Graphic Design explores the worlds of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books, and posters; the expansion of branding programs for corporations, subcultures and nations; the entrepreneurial spirit of designer-produced goods; the renaissance in digital typeface design; the storytelling potential of film and television titling sequences; and the transformation of raw data into compelling information narratives.

The Happy Show by Stefan Sagmeister

April 4 – August 12, 2012

Graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister not only tests the boundary between art and design, he often transgresses it through his imaginative implementation of typography. Filling the Institute of Contemporary Art’s (ICA) entire second-floor galleries and Ramp, and activating the in-between spaces of the museum,The Happy Show offers visitors the experience of walking into the designer’s mind as he attempts to increase his happiness via mediation, cognitive therapy, and mood-altering pharmaceuticals. “I am usually rather bored with definitions,” Sagmeister says. “Happiness, however, is just such a big subject that it might be worth a try to pin it down.” Centered around the designer’s ten-year exploration of happiness, this exhibition presents typographic investigations of a series of maxims, or rules to live by, originally culled from Sagmeister’s diary, manifested in a variety of imaginative and interactive forms. The Happy Showopens on Wednesday, April 4, 2012 with a reception from 6–8pm, and will remain on view through August 12, 2012.