Redefine your understanding of graphic design with the Insights Design Lecture Series, presenting four leading designers from around the country. Dive in to the thinking behind their work, then hang out after the lectures to meet the speakers, grab a drink, and chat with your fellow design lovers. The lineup features designer/artist Archie Lee Coates IV of interdisciplinary studio Playlab; legendary feminist designer Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, director of the Yale Graduate Program in Graphic Design; Nike’s chief marketing officer Greg Hoffman; and experimental print/digital publishing guru Paul Soulellis.
Copresented by the Walker Art Center and AIGA Minnesota.
2018 Insights Design Lecture Series
Walker Art Center
March 6–27
Tuesdays, 7 pm
Tickets
Tickets go on sale Thursday, February 1. Tickets for each lecture are $24 ($19 Walker and AIGA members; $10 students).
Save with an Insights Series Package
Attend all four Insights lectures for $72 ($57 Walker and AIGA members; $30 students). To buy a ticket, visit walkerart.org/tickets or call the box office at 612.375.7600.
After-Lecture Receptions
Directly following each lecture, meet the speakers, grab a drink, and chat with fellow design lovers in the Walker’s new Main Lobby.
Watch Anywhere: Insights Viewing Parties
The lectures will be webcast live and archived on the Walker’s website. If you can’t make it here in person this year, consider having an Insights Viewing Party with a group of friends and send in your comments and questions for the speakers via Twitter (#InsightsDesign).
Lecture Schedule
Archie Lee Coates IV, New York
Playlab
March 6, 7 pm
A floating plus-shaped pool that filters river water for New Yorkers to swim in. An architectural magazine that examines themes such as guns, virtual space, Apple, and prisons. An identity for a young sex toy company. An exhibition of paintings in Reykjavik. A collection of clips of Joaquin Phoenix walking on film, titled Walking Phoenix. A capsule collection of floral embroidered clothing for Need Supply. A faculty position in SVA’s Design for Social Innovation program. A rebrand of the United States of America for SFMOMA. An interdisciplinary studio called Playlab. Where does Archie Lee Coates IV find the time?
Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, New Haven, CT
Yale University
March 13, 7 pm
Over her five decades of practice, designer and artist Sheila Levrant de Bretteville has been a consistent trailblazer. From founding the first design program for women at CalArts, co-creating the Feminist Studio Workshop, and running the Woman’s Building and the Women’s Graphic Center to being the first woman to receive tenure at Yale University School of Art, de Bretteville has been at the forefront of conversations regarding design, equality, and culture. Since 1990, she has been director of the Yale University graphic design MFA program, one of the most adventurous and forward-thinking of its kind in the world. Through her leadership and teaching, the program has been in constant dialogue with the international design scene, embracing a critical and experimental approach to design while producing some of the most exciting young designers today. She is also a public artist, creating poignant works that celebrate and illuminate the neighborhoods they exist within. She has created site specific works in Hong Kong, Russia, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, and many other places. In 2004 de Bretteville received the “Design Legend Gold Medal” from the AIGA.
Greg Hoffman, Portland, OR
Nike, Inc.
March 20, 7 pm
In Greg Hoffman’s Instagram feed, a pair of pristine Air Jordans sits side by side with an abstract modernist sculpture; not far by, an Eames chair saddles up to a bottle of Yamazaki Whiskey, with Mount St. Helens in the background. When put through the lens of a designer who reveres sports, nature, travel, and design equally—even AstroTurf can exude elegance. Born in Tonka Bay and a graduate of MCAD, Greg Hoffman left Minnesota 25 years ago in his parents’ van to seek a design internship at Nike. Today he is chief marketing officer of the preeminent athletics brand, responsible for their brand design, digital and retail experiences, ads, and campaigns, working with designers and creative agencies around the world. He has overseen projects for the Olympics, FIFA World Cup, and NBA All-Star games. At its heart, Hoffman’s work revolves around the intersection of innovative design and compelling storytelling, and his work for Nike frequently highlights the exaggerated humanity inherent to the world of sports.
Paul Soulellis, Providence, RI
Counterpractice, Rhizome.org, RISD
March 27, 7 pm
As we live our lives increasingly through virtual interfaces, our relationship to analog technologies becomes more fetishized and our understanding of community becomes progressively networked. How do we communicate? How do we publish? What is signal and what is noise? These are some of the questions that designer, author, and teacher Paul Soulellis tackles in his work, which investigates the intersection of experimental publishing, network culture, and artistic practice. Soulellis’s design studio Counterpractice tackles design and branding projects, including the overarching identity design and branding strategy for the TEDx Conferences. Soulellis is also contributing editor at the new media art platform Rhizome.org, a professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, and founder of the Library of the Printed Web, an archive of web-to-print artist works.