We are thrilled to have four of our posters—Trump (Moloch), OBOMBA, Trump 24K Gold-Plated, and Kinder, Gentler, Carpet Bombing—included in the exhibit “Protest! Resistance Posters” which opens tonight at the Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.

From the museum’s publicity: “Globalization, women’s rights, Trump: the poster has established itself as an effective medium for political struggle. 50 years after 1968, the onset of a worldwide rebellion, this exhibition presents around 300 international protest posters.

“The designs dismantle rulers, denounce injustice, or lend utopia a face. They are instances of visual memory, appeal to the necessity of resistance today, and prove the topicality and universality of the depicted themes. The exhibition showcases the work of socially engaged designers and illuminates various strategies of protest.”

Photograph courtesy of Benjamin Westoby and the Design Museum.

Our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster was acquired by the Design Museum, London on September 7, 2017 and is to appear in their new exhibition—“Hope to Nope: Graphics and Politics 2008–18”—which opens this week.

From the Design Museum publicity: “Graphic design in the form of internet memes, posters and protest placards is being used by the marginalised and powerful alike to shape political messages like never before.

“From the global financial crash and the Arab Spring, to ISIS, Brexit and Trump, this exhibition explores the numerous ways graphic messages have challenged, altered and influenced key political moments.”

See our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.

San Francisco’s Letterform Archive recently acquired a range of printed ephemera from the Design is Play and BlackDog archives. Stationery systems include those designed for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) Architecture + Design Forum (1998); California College of the Arts (CCA) (2003); Design is Play (2008); and BlackDog (2008).

The most recently designed acquisition is the 6th Amendment poster we designed for the “We the People” exhibit held at The Cooper Union (2017); the oldest is Mark’s “End Pollution: Bomb the Pentagon” poster (1991). The body of work encompasses a range of printing processes on a wide variety of substrates, including offset lithography, engraving, letterpress, blind embossing, foil stamping, and screen printing.

One of the acquisitions is a full deck of playing cards we foil stamped to announce the launch of our original website in 2011. (The cards were used for a mailing based on the idea of “play.”) Card backs are overprinted with an LCD grid to suggest infinite possibilities: depending on which portions of the grid are “lit,” any letter or number can be constructed. The LCD grid as a programmable system is an apt analogy for our studio as well as the web.

Card fronts are overprinted with a “window” which reframes the original design, forcing the viewer to reconsider the familiar schema. Like the LCD grid, the window suggests a larger idea: a screen with an infinite number of views. Foil stamping by Oscar Printing, San Francisco; photography © Mark Serr.

We are proud to have our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster designated a “Judge’s Choice” by juror Spencer Charles. Below are his comments from Typography 38, the Annual of the Type Directors Club:

“The judging for this competition took place the weekend after the U.S. presidential inauguration, the same weekend the nation was dealing with the fallout from the immigration ban that had just been enacted. Because of this context, and because of the thoughtful execution of this poster, it provoked a conversation unlike any other entry in the competition. Additionally, it demonstrated that typography can (and should) extend beyond formal and aesthetic considerations and can very powerfully communicate the spirit of its content, even if that purpose is to agitate and make a political statement.”

See our Trump 24K Gold-Plated poster and others under Design is Play Studio Posters.