Over his career, Jon Sueda has carved out a unique practice for himself as a designer, curator, and educator—a practice that has allowed him a curious perspective simultaneously creating design, generating dialogue about the field, and helping shape the designers of the future. Originally from Hawaii, Sueda has bounced around the globe, working in California, Holland, and North Carolina, and finally founding his design studio Stripe in 2004. Since then he has created work for a variety of cultural clients such as Chronicle Books, the New York Times Magazine, the Architecture Association (London), and REDCAT Gallery. For seven years, Sueda served as Director of Design for the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, creating all of their exhibition graphics, catalogues, and branding. He is also the art director of Exhibitionist magazine, a journal “by curators, for curators”; co-editor of Task Newsletter, a journal of design; and a co-organizer of AtRandom events, a “community sponsored public gathering of designers, artists, writers and researchers within the Los Angeles area.” Sueda is currently the chair of the MFA Design program at the California College of the Arts.
As a curator, Sueda creates shows that endeavor to contextualize aspects of the design field. His most recent exhibition, All Possible Futures (SOMArts Cultural Center, San Francisco), tackled the subject of speculative design, examining conditions in which graphic designers are able to make work outside of the typical client-based relationship. Featuring an international range of practitioners, the show and its accompanying catalogue have been highly influential, mapping the connections between speculative fiction, academic investigation, think tank innovation, and contemporary art.
Sueda has lectured and taught at colleges around the world, and his work has been featured in numerous publications, including Idea, Graphic, Abitare, and Creative Review. His work has been featured in the exhibitions Forms of Inquiry: The Architecture of Critical Graphic Design (Architecture Association), Graphic Design in the White Cube (Moravian Gallery, Brno), and The Live Archive of The Generational: Younger than Jesus (New Museum).
Tonight’s lecture is ASL interpreted.
