The Walker embodies progressive design through both the presentation of an eclectic mix of exhibitions, events, and initiatives as well as through the practice of its award-winning in-house design studio and influential fellowship and publishing programs.
Staff
- Asli Altay, Head of Content and Communications
- Ian Babineau, Graphic Designer
- Andrew Bogard, Designer Fellow
- Kameron Herndon, Image Specialist
- Brian Huddleston, Graphic Designer
- Pamela Johnson, Senior Editor
- Mark Owens, Director of Design
- Jake Yuzna, Content Producer
General inquiries, including studio tour requests, can be sent to designinfo@walkerart.org.
Honors & Awards
2021
- Summer Ahead (campaign),
AIGA MN Design Show Award Winner - Living Collections Catalogue vol. III & IV (digital publication),
AIGA MN Design Show Award Winner - The Paradox of Stillness (catalogue),
AIGA 50/50 Books winner - The Paradox of Stillness (catalogue),
AIGA 50/50 Covers winner - Low Visibility (trailer),
The Telly Awards, Silver winner - Designs for Different Futures (catalogue),
AIGA 50/50 Books winner - Designs for Different Futures (catalogue),
AIGA 50/50 Covers winner - Designs for Different Futures (catalogue),
2020 Core77 Design Awards Notable Selection, Visual Communications - The Expressionist Figure (catalogue),
AIGA 50/50 Books winner - Siah Armajani: Follow This Line (catalogue),
TDC Communication Design Competition 65 “Certificate of Typographic Excellence” - Siah Armajani: Follow This Line (trailer),
The Telly Awards 2019, Bronze Winner - 2017 Insights Design Lecture Series poster,
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - 2018 Insights Design Lecture Series poster,
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Siah Armajani: Follow This Line (catalogue),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Jason Moran (catalogue),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Merce Cunningham: Common Time (catalogue),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Allen Ruppersberg: Intellectual Property, 1968–2018 (catalogue),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Merce Cunningham: Common Time (campaign),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - Garden Stories (interactive publication),
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2019 - 2017 Insights Design Lecture series (identity),
Print Regional Design Annual 2018 - Merce Cunningham: Common Time (catalogue),
Print Regional Design Annual 2018 - Merce Cunningham: Common Time (campaign),
Print Regional Design Annual 2018 - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (catalogue),
Core77 Design Awards 2016, Visual Communications Professional Category, Winner - International Pop (catalogue),
Core77 Design Awards 2016, Visual Communications Professional Category, Honoree - International Pop (catalogue),
Print Regional Design Annual 2016 - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (catalogue),
Print Regional Design Annual 2016 - Intangibles, Print Regional Design Annual 2016
- Question Everything (campaign)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 Judge’s choice - SuperScript: Arts Journalism and Criticism in a Digital Age (identity) AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 Judge’s choice
- Intangibles
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - Insights 2016 Design Lecture Series poster
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (exhibition catalogue)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - International Pop (exhibition catalogue)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - Ordinary Pictures (exhibition catalogue)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - International Pop (campaign)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (campaign)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2016 - Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia (catalogue)
Design Observer, 50 Books/50 Covers - International Pop (catalogue)
Design Observer, 50 Books/50 Covers - Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites (catalogue)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2014 - Internet Cat Video Festival (campaign) AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2014
- Painter Painter (campaign)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2014 - Rock the Garden (poster)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2014 - Artist-Designed Mini Golf (campaign)
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2014 - Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstruccion Suites (catalogue)
Design Observer, 50 Books/50 Covers - 9 Artists (catalogue)
Design Observer, 50 Books/50 Covers - Graphic Design: Now in Production
Core77 Design Awards 2012, Visual Communications, Professional Winner - Graphic Design: Now in Production
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Publications, Judges Choice - Graphic Design: Now in Production
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Walker Art Center Website
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Interactive - Walker Art Center Website
Print Regional Design Annual 2012 - Eiko & Koma: Time is not Even, Space is not Empty
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Publications - Eiko & Koma: Time is not Even, Space is not Empty
Print Regional Design Annual 2012 - British Arrows
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Campaign, Judges Choice - The Parade: Nathalie Djurberg with Music by Hans Berg
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Publications - 2011 Insights Design Lecture Series Poster
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2012, Print - Walker Open Field Campaign
Print Regional Design Annual 2011 - From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America
Print Regional Design Annual 2011 - From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2011, Publications, Judges Choice - From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America
International Center for Photography, Infinity Award 2011 - Yves Klein: With The Void, Full Powers
Print Regional Design Annual 2011 - Yves Klein: With The Void, Full Powers
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Yves Klein: With The Void, Full Powers
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2011, Publications - Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes
Society of Architectural Historians, 2011 Philip Johnson Exhibition Catalog Award - Collective Imagination campaign
Print Regional Design Annual 2010 - Collective Imagination campaign
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2010, Advertising/Branding Campaigns - The Quick and the Dead
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Yves Klein: With The Void, Full Powers
Midwest Art Society Award for Outstanding Catalog - National Design Award, Corporate and Institutional Achievement
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2009, Books - Tetsumi Kudo: Garden of Metamorphosis
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Trisha Brown: So That the Audience Does Not Know Whether I Have Stopped Dancing
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2009, Books - Peter Seitz: Designing a Life
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love
ID Magazine 2008 Annual Design Review, Design Distinction, Graphics - National Design Award nomination, Communication Design
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum - Frida Kahlo
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2008, Books - Kara Walker My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2008, Books - Walker Expanded
Print Magazine, A + C = D, Business Graphics Competition - Kara Walker: My Complement, My Enemy, My Oppressor, My Love
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - 771 Artists: Walker Art Center Annual Report 2005–2006
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Annual Reports - Design Fellowship poster
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Posters, Judges Pick - Heart of Darkness
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Books - Open-Ended Report
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Books, Judges Pick - Ordinary Culture gallery guide
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Brochures - Walker magazine
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2007, Miscellaneous - Kiki Smith: A Gathering, 1980–2005
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Walker Expanded identity
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 365: AIGA Annual Design Competition, Brand and Identity Systems - House of Oracles: A Huang Yong Ping Retrospective
ID Magazine 2006 Annual Design Review, Honorable Mention, Graphics - Walker Expanded identity
ID Magazine 2006 Annual Design Review, Best of Category, Graphics - Walker Expanded identity
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2006, Identity Systems - Where
_____meets______. opening campaign
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2006, Advertising/Promotional Campaigns - Expanding the Center: Walker Art Center and Herzog & de Meuron
AIGA/Minnesota Design Show 2006, Books - Bits & Pieces Put Together to Present a Semblance of a Whole
Midwest Art History Society Award for Outstanding Exhibition Catalogue - Walker without Walls identity campaign
Print Magazine, Business Graphics II, First Place - Walker without Walls identity campaign
American Institute of Graphic Arts 2004, Communications Graphics - Walker without Walls identity campaign
I.D. Magazine 2005 Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - Walker without Walls identity campaign
AIGA/Minnesota 2004 Excellence in Design Award
Juror’s Selection Award - The Last Picture Show: Artists Using Photography, 1960-1982
AIGA/Minnesota 2004 Excellence in Design Award - Past Things and Present: Jasper Johns since 1983
AIGA/Minnesota 2004 Excellence in Design Award - Strangely Familiar: Design in Everyday Life
American Institute of Graphic Arts 2003, 50 Books/50 Covers - Strangely Familiar: Design in Everyday Life
I.D. Magazine’s Annual Design Review
Honorable Mention, Graphics - Artists and Communities at the Crossroads: Walker Art Center Annual Report 2001-2002
2003 American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Honorable Mention, Annual Reports - Artists and Communities at the Crossroads: Walker Art Center Annual Report 2001-2002
AIGA/Minnesota 2003 Excellence in Design Award - How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age
American Institute of Graphic Arts 2002, 50 Books/50 Covers - How Latitudes Become Forms: Art in a Global Age
AIGA/Minnesota 2003 Excellence in Design Award
Juror’s Selection Award - Julie Mehretu: Drawing into Painting
AIGA/Minnesota 2003 Excellence in Design Award - Strangely Familiar: Design in Everyday Life
AIGA/Minnesota 2003 Excellence in Design Award
Juror’s Selection Award - To/From: Rivane Neuenschwander
AIGA/Minnesota 2002 Excellence in Design Award - Catherine Opie: Icehouses + Skyways
AIGA/Minnesota 2002 Excellence in Design Award - 365: A Year to View. Walker 2000/2001 Annual Report
AIGA/Minnesota 2002 Excellence in Design Award - American Tableaux
American Institute of Graphic Arts 2001, 50 Books/50 Covers - American Tableaux
AIGA/Minnesota 2002 Excellence in Design Award - American Tableaux
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Second Place, Guides - Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Cover - Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962-1972
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review 2002
Design Distinction, Graphics - Magnetic North: Experimental Canadian Video
designed in collaboration with Linda van Deursen and Armand Mevis, Amsterdam
American Center for Design Twenty-Fourth Annual 100 Show - Painting at the Edge of the World
I.D. Magazine’s Annual Design Review 2001
Honorable Mention, Graphics - Painting at the Edge of the World
American Center for Design, Twenty-Fourth Annual 100 Show - Interactive Door Project
designed by Antenna Design New York
I.D. Magazine Interactive Design Competition
Silver Award - Idea House Interactive
designed by Deborah Littlejohn and Eric Williams
I.D. Magazine Interactive Design Competition
Bronze Award - Idea House Interactive
designed by Deborah Littlejohn and Eric Williams
AIGA/Minnesota Excellence in Design Award - Idea House Interactive
designed by Deborah Littlejohn and Eric Williams
How Magazine Annual Interactive Design Review
Merit Award - 2000 BC: The Bruce Conner Story Part II
International Art Critics Association, U.S. Chapter
Second Place, Best Exhibition Catalogue of 2000 - One Century/One Year: 1999-2000 Annual Report
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Second Prize, Annual Reports - April 2000 Walker monthly calendar
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Second Prize, Calendar of Events - October 2000 London Knees Artwork of the Month
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Honorable Mention, Educational Resources - Let’s Entertain: Life’s Guilty Pleasures
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - Let’s Entertain: Life’s Guilty Pleasures
American Center for Design Twenty-Third Annual 100 Show - Design Internship poster
American Center for Design Twenty-Third Annual 100 Show - Edward Ruscha Editions: 1959–1999
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Honorable Mention, Graphics - Edward Ruscha Editions: 1959–1999
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Through Your Eyes: 1998–1999 Annual Report
American Institute of Graphic Arts, Communications Graphics - Through Your Eyes: 1998–1999 Annual Report
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Honorable Mention, Annual Reports - WAC Pack
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
First Prize, Educational Resources - Robert Gober: Sculpture + Drawing
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Robert Gober: Sculpture + Drawing
American Center for Design Twenty-Second Annual 100 Show - Edward Ruscha Editions: 1959–1999
American Center for Design Twenty-Second Annual 100 Show - Regards, Barry McGee
American Center for Design Twenty-Second Annual 100 Show - 1999 Insights Lecture Series poster
American Center for Design Twenty-Second Annual 100 Show - Walker Art Center Internship poster
American Center for Design Twenty-Second Annual 100 Show - Interaction: 1997–1998 Annual Report
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
First Prize, Annual Reports - Artwork of the Month brochures
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Honorable Mention, Guides - Dialogue: Mary Esch/Daniel Oates
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - On a Balcony: A Novel (Mark Luyten)
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Honorable Mention, Graphics - On a Balcony: A Novel (Mark Luyten)
American Institute of Graphic Arts, 50 Books/50 Covers - Walker Art Center monthly calendars
American Center for Design Twenty-first Annual 100 Show - Diana Thater: Orchids in the Land of Technology gallery brochure
American Center for Design Twenty-first Annual 100 Show - Joseph Beuys Multiples poster
American Center for Design Twenty-first Annual 100 Show - Linking Art & Life: 1996–1997 Annual Report
AIGA/Minnesota 1998 Excellence in Design Award - Art Performs Life: Cunningham/Monk/Jones
AIGA/Minnesota 1998 Excellence in Design Award - Dialogue series
AIGA/Minnesota 1998 Excellence in Design Award - 1995–1996 Annual Report
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Honorable Mention, Graphics - Fischli & Weiss: In a Restless World
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - Fischli & Weiss: In a Restless World
American Center for Design Twentieth Annual 100 Show - Walker typeface
designed by Matthew Carter
American Center for Design Twentieth Annual 100 Show - Insights Lecture Series poster
American Center for Design Twentieth Annual 100 Show - On a Balcony: A Novel (Mark Luyten)
American Association of Museums Publications Design Competition
Honorable Mention, exhibition catalogues - On a Balcony: A Novel (Mark Luyten)
AIGA/Minnesota 1997 Excellence in Design Award - 1995–1996 Annual Report
AIGA/Minnesota 1997 Excellence in Design Award - Walker typeface
designed by Matthew Carter
AIGA/Minnesota 1997 Excellence in Design Award - Midwest Film/Video flyer
AIGA/Minnesota 1997 Excellence in Design Award - Walker Art Center calendars
AIGA/Minnesota 1997 Excellence in Design Award - 1995–1996 Annual Report
The Type Directors Club of New York - Brilliant! New Art from London
American Center for Design Nineteenth Annual 100 Show - Brilliant! New Art from London
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - Bruce Nauman
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Honorable Mention, Graphics - Walker Art Center calendars
American Center for Design Nineteenth Annual 100 Show - Bruce Nauman
International Art Critics Association, U.S. Chapter
Best Book of 1994 - In the Spirit of Fluxus
International Association of Art Critics, U.S. Chapter
Second Place for Best Exhibition Catalog of 1994-1995 - In the Spirit of Fluxus
American Center for Design Eighteenth Annual 100 Show - The Once and Future Park
American Center for Design Eighteenth Annual 100 Show - In the Spirit of Fluxus
I.D. Magazine Annual Design Review
Design Distinction Award, Graphics - In the Spirit of Fluxus
AIGA/Minnesota 1993 Excellence in Design Award - Public Address: Krzysztof Wodiczko
AIGA/Minnesota 1993 Excellence in Design Award - The Once and Future Park
AIGA/Minnesota 1993 Excellence in Design Award
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About the Department
The Walker Art Center’s design legacy can trace its roots to its earliest days as a public art center. Daniel Defenbacher, its first director and an architect by training, initiated several pioneering projects to educate the public about the virtues of modern design. Among these initiatives were Idea Houses I and II (1941, 1947), the first museum exhibition homes to display the latest innovations in domestic architectural, product, and interior design. The Everyday Art Gallery, which opened in 1946 with Hilde Reiss as curator, became one of the first museum spaces in the United States dedicated to modern design. The Gallery offered an ambitious program of exhibitions, including special shows such as Well-Designed Articles from Minneapolis Stores, which underscored one of its primary purposes—educating the consumer about the benefits of modern design, an objective that would become a precursor of the “good design” movement of the 1950s. Another equally important goal was for design to act as a bridge for the public between the more practical and therefore accessible products of modern living and the unfamiliar, often abstract, world of modern art.
The Walker began publication of Everyday Art Quarterly in 1946, the first design journal issued by a museum. Through the Quarterly, audiences were introduced to the work of now-legendary designers. In 1954, the publication was renamed Design Quarterly, focusing on in-depth explorations of singular topics—an editorial practice that would continue until the 1990s. During the 1960s and 1970s, under the direction of Peter Seitz and later Mildred Friedman, the journal increasingly embraced topics that examined design’s impact on society. A range of subjects were explored that reflected the changing currents of design thinking: the visionary architecture of Archigram and Superstudio; issues of ecology and product obsolescence; the development of mass transit and urban renewal strategies; the ergonomics of everyday objects; and the impact of technology on design. The list of writers and contributors from this period reads as a who’s who of contemporary design.
Mildred Friedman, design curator from 1979 to 1991, sometimes in collaboration with Walker Director Martin Friedman, organized a series of groundbreaking exhibitions such as Sottsass/Superstudio: Mindscapes (1973); New Learning Spaces and Places (1974); Nelson/Eames/Girard/Propst: The Design Process at Herman Miller (1975); De Stijl, 1917–1931: Visions of Utopia (1982); The Architecture of Frank Gehry (1986), the architect’s first major museum exhibition; Tokyo: Form and Spirit (1986), featuring the work of Japanese designers such as Arata Isozaki, Tadanori Yokoo, Toyo Ito, Tadao Ando, and Eiko Ishioka; Architecture Tomorrow (1988–1991), a series of installations undertaken by Frank Israel, Morphosis, Todd Williams/Billie Tsien, Stanley Saitowitz, Diller+Scofidio, and Steven Holl; and Graphic Design in America: A Visual Language History (1989), the first large-scale museum survey of the field in the United States.
Under Andrew Blauvelt, curator of architecture and design, the Walker continues to organize major exhibitions, including Herzog & de Meuron: In Process (2000), The Home Show (2000), Strangely Familiar: Design and Everyday Life (2003), Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses (2005), Worlds Away: New Suburban Landscapes (2007), and Graphic Design: Now in Production (2011).
Two popular annual lecture series, which began in the 1980s, present architects and designers of international renown: the Summer Design Series, in collaboration with the American Institute of Architects Minnesota; and Insights, organized with AIGA Minnesota.
The department not only originates design-related exhibitions and lectures, but also produces the institution’s graphic identity and publications program. An in-house staff of editors and designers produces a complete range of materials, encompassing printed ephemera, environmental graphics, and exhibition catalogues. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the Walker’s graphic identity served as a de facto model for modern art museums worldwide. In 1987, the American Institute of Graphic Arts presented its Design Leadership Award to the Walker—placing it in the company of IBM, MIT, Apple, the New York Times, Nike, and Herman Miller.
In the 1990s, the institution began to focus on new art forms and new audiences, which created an opportunity to reexamine its graphic identity. Laurie Haycock Makela, design director from 1991 to 1996, commissioned typographer Matthew Carter to develop a new typeface to reflect the multivalent character of a multidisciplinary arts center. This innovative font formed the basis of a visually dynamic identity. Under the direction of Haycock Makela, Matt Eller (1996–1998), Andrew Blauvelt (1998–2010), and Emmet Byrne (2010–present), the department developed a more flexible direction, shifting the Walker’s identity to less rigidly modernist style. Such an approach reflects the institution’s varied programs, the diversity of its changing audiences, and the increasing fragmentation of the marketplace.
Since the 1990s, the Walker has been the recipient of more than 100 design awards and has been featured in numerous design publications and exhibitions worldwide. Today, the Walker’s graphic identity is widely admired for its progressive approach and is frequently cited as a model for other contemporary art museums by extending the notion of institutional identity to a more comprehensive understanding of the complete museum experience.
In 2001, the department was nominated for the prestigious Chrysler Award for Design Innovation, and its work was exhibited at the Design Museum, London. Underscoring the institution’s continued leadership and innovation, the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum awarded the 2009 National Design Award for Corporate/Institutional Achievement to the Walker, the first nonprofit institution to be recognized in this category.
The Walker has published more than 1,000 exhibition guides and books to date. This ambitious program gained strength in the 1980s, and evolved its distinctive approach in the ensuing decades. Whether an artist’s monograph, a catalogue raisonné, or a publication for a thematic group exhibition, Walker catalogues eschew formulaic approaches to uniquely reflect the intrinsic character of their subject matter. In the late 1990s, the program issued a new form of catalogue that not only documented artists’ work, but also contextualized it from multidisciplinary perspectives. These reader-style volumes—Let’s Entertain (2000), Painting at the Edge of the World (2001), and The Last Picture Show (2003), for example—reinforce the Walker’s commitment to publishing new scholarly research. In 2010, the Walker launched Walker Postscript (Walker P.S.), a print-on-demand imprint that presents short and focused texts that delve more deeply, or broadly, into the rich concepts that animate the institution’s diverse artistic programs.
Design Fellowship
Since 1980, the Walker’s Design department has maintained a graphic design fellowship program that provides recent graduates the opportunity to work in a professional design studio environment.