My Beautiful Dark Typeset Fantasy
Focusing on the role of typography in recent identity, environmental, and editorial projects, Abbott’s presentation looks at how typography and lettering are used to create a sense of place, time, and mood.
Abbott Miller’s work as a designer encompasses identity, exhibitions, environmental graphics, publication design and digital media. He and his team have evolved a uniquely hybrid design practice that crosses from page to screen to interior environments and objects. He has also embraced the role of editor, writer, and curator in many of his exhibition and publication projects, fusing his interests in the history and theory of art, architecture, performance, fashion and design, along with his role as a designer.
Some of Abbott’s key projects include the exhibition and book “Design for a Living World,” a project about sustainable design for The Nature Conservancy, which was shown at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the Field Museum in Chicago, and currently traveling to Phoenix. He has worked with a number of art museums, including identity and signage for the Art Institute of Chicago, and the signage for the recent Cooper Union building by Morphosis. He and his team also designed 40,000 sq ft of permanent exhibitions for the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee. Abbott and his team are currently working on identity, environmental graphics, website design, and interpretive messaging for the new Philadelphia site at the Barnes Foundation, identity and environmental graphics for a school in Japan.
Over the course of his career Abbott has collaborated with a number of artists to create distinctive books, including Nam June Paik, Hans Haacke, Mathew Barney, Doris Salcedo, Yoko Ono, Diller + Scofidio and William Kentridge. He has also written extensively about design: his books include Design/Writing/Research, The Process of Elimination, The Bauhaus and Design Theory, and Swarm. He is editor and art director of the award-winning visual and performing arts publication 2wice: his most recent project for 2wice was “Merce Cunningham: Event” an App featuring his collaborations with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company over several years.
Abbott has also produced two series of successful wallpapers for Knoll, and he is currently developing a new series of patterns for Formica, along with developing an illustrated history of Formica in conjunction with its 100th anniversary.
Abbott and Ellen received the first Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design and for his work in magazine and book design he received the International Center of Photography Infinity Award. Abbott’s work has been acknowledged with numerous awards and is represented in the design collections of SFMoMA, The Art Institute of Chicago, and the Cooper-Hewitt. In 2009 he received the Augustus Saint Gaudens Award for Art from his alma mater, The Cooper Union.
Thursday 16th February
6:30-8:30 p.m.
TDC Members Free
Non members $20
Student Non members $15
