Part of Insights 2016 Design Lecture Series: Celebrating 30 Years
From her early career working with Dutch studios Total Design and UNA to cofounding a preeminent global design agency to teaching at the Yale School of Art to her recent appointment at the world’s third most-attended museum, Susan Sellers has kept herself at the epicenter of some of the most exciting design and cultural scenes. She has actively explored issues as varied as data visualization, screen-based technologies, critical design, material culture, brand development, and craft.
In 1994 Sellers cofounded 2×4, an agency with offices in New York, Madrid, and Beijing. Its massive output includes anything from brand work for Vitra to in-shop displays for Prada, environments for Nike, identity work for the Brooklyn Museum, pattern work for Kate Spade, and the design of a seven-screen cinematic experience for Kanye West.
On top of her work at 2×4, Sellers was recently appointed head of design at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where she will oversee a team of designers, installers, and architects to execute the full range of the institution’s design needs, including print materials, gallery installations, and signage. In March 2016 the institution will unveil its newly designed brand—Sellers’s Insights lecture will be the first public presentation of what should be a fantastic new identity.
Sellers is also one of the core faculty members of the MFA graphic design program at the Yale University School of Art, where she helps shape one of the most prestigious design programs in the world. She has written about design for such publications as Eye, Design Issues, and Visible Language, and her work has received countless awards.
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