The posters for this identity system were designed collaboratively by 12 artists and designers. I asked each of them to make one black and white tabloid-sized poster with a template organized into four horizontal segments. Their only constraints were to fit the text within the boxes of the template and to use any(combination) of the four variable fonts selected for them. Non-typographic elements could break the boundary of the template, but the information could not.

After receiving the submitted compositions, Nick and I played the roles of both designer and curator by slicing the images into their segments and stitching them back together à la exquisite corpse.

These visuals poetically speaks to our class's fragmented learning experiences resulting from how the pandemic timed up with our graduate enrollment. We started in person and were suddenly forced inside for a year and a half of remote learning (for most of which we didn't know when tf it was going to end). Then we returned to a hybrid situation in our thesis year, interrupted by a temporary move back online during the Omicron surge. Our definition of class and classroom shifted many times during our time at CCA, bringing people together in ways they otherwise may not have. Similarly, the show's identity system allows unpredictable combinations of elements to appear on the same piece, making for striking aestetics that are both harmonious and chaotic.

Exhibition Statement

Unexpected changes in environment can alter perspective. What at first seemed aggressive can suddenly become docile under a different light. What always felt familiar transitions into something strange and unusual. A shift in the environment can reveal something previously unseen or unknown. Over the course of our time here at CCA, the environment in which we make and share our work has been in constant flux - from a bustling studio to our homes across the globe and then back together again in a setting where we are encouraged to cover our faces and maintain distance. These shifts have no doubt had an effect on how we view the world and how we see our work and ourselves fitting into it. We have had little control over these changes, and so we invite you to take back some of that agency. Just know, you are controlling the environment for every one in the space.

Role: Creative Director & Graphic Desinger
Collaboration with Nick Lamkin