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Graphic Design Talk & Workshop by Rene Put and Rianne Petter
On May 9 two exciting programs introduce the How Posters Work exhibition in the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum
Sat, May 9 - Sat, May 9 2015
On May 9 two exciting programs introduce the How Posters Work exhibition. Dutch designers Rianne Petter and René Put will talk about their own experimental dissection of design language, Poster No. 524: Exploring the Contemporary Poster and visit a lively panel discussion about understanding posters.
3-5pm: Graphic Design Open Studio
Tired of knitting? Bored after brunch? Yearning to create the ultimate modernist Mother’s Day card? Cooper Hewitt invites you to celebrate the opening of our exhibition How Posters Work with hands-on design activities in our ground-floor Design Studio. Come print, make, and deconstruct, and then join us for a lively panel discussion about understanding posters. Visiting designers include Rianne Petter, René Put, Katie Evans, and Mary Mashburn/Globe Poster. Activities appropriate for designers of all ages, 8 and up.
5-6:30pm: Curator’s Talk: How Posters Work
Cooper Hewitt curator Ellen Lupton and guests will talk about how to look at posters as visual language. What does it mean to take graphic design out of context and put it in a museum? How Posters Work uses posters to explore principles of visual thinking and storytelling. Dutch designers Rianne Petter and René Put will talk about their own experimental dissection of design language, Poster No. 524: Exploring the Contemporary Poster.
About the artists
René Put and Brigitte Gootink together form the design bureau PutGootink. René Put works on a wide variety of projects, designing books, catalogues, stamps, campaigns and the design and installation of exhibitions. René Put teaches graphic design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Amsterdam.
Rianne Petter works as an independent graphic designer on commissions from both the cultural and commercial circuit, in the areas of art, festivals and fashion. She has also taught graphic design at the Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam.
Poster N° 524 presents the Dutch graphic designers René Put and Rianne Petter’s visual research on the medium of the poster. Their collaborative research into the medium of the poster started in 2006 and was part of the research group ‘Art and Public Space’ from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.
Visual Research
One part of the research consists of an exploration in to all the relevant factors that play a role in shaping the design of a poster and how users of the public space read the poster. The second and most extensive part of the research is based on a collection of posters. In three months Rianne and René collected all the (legally and illegally distributed) posters in public areas in Amsterdam; a total of 523 unique posters. This extensive collection formed the basis of a research project into posters as unique portraits of our visual culture.
René and Rianne carefully studied and deconstructed this collection, researched certain elements, isolated and then reconstructed them. These newly constructed images are visual data. The images provide a renewed awareness, inspire reflection and invite a reconsideration of the possibilities of posters as a medium.
Publication
In September 2012 the book ‘Poster Nº524’ has been published by Valiz. In addition to showcasing the research results of the project the publication also examines the value of design research in our current visual culture and the tools that designers have at their disposal. Poster N° 524 makes clear how a creative research process works, and is designed so that more generalized meanings about posters and visual culture are made visible.
Jeroen Boomgaard and Jouke Kleerebezem’s texts both deepen and contextualize Petter and Put’s individualistic approach, while at the same time exploring the historical meaning of posters in public space.
Order the book POSTER Nº524
The Netherlands/Belgium € 25,00
Europe € 25,00 + € 5,00
Non-EU € 25,00 + € 10,00