New Work: SCAD Museum of Art
An interactive installation can draw a user into an immersive experience, illuminating an exhibition or object in depth or detail. It may also foster interaction between users, creating a collaborative atmosphere that sets a welcoming social tone for an institution. For an expansion of the SCAD Museum of Art, the contemporary art and design museum at the Savannah College of Art and Design, Pentagram’s Eddie Opara and team have created a unique interactive table that introduces the museum and its programs in a communal experience. Visitors gather around the table to view and exchange a series of “cards” that dynamically present information about the museum exhibitions, collections and programs.
Conceived by Opara and team, the communal table is an ideal form for the museum. SCAD supports a large community of students, artists, designers and educators in Savannah and beyond. The school is a pioneering institution with a campus of over 60 buildings spread throughout the city, many restored in the historic and Victorian districts. Designed by Savannah-based architects Sottile & Sottile, the new $26 million expansion adds 65,000 square feet to the existing 1856 Greek Revival building, originally the headquarters of the Central of Georgia Railway. The expansion creates additional galleries for the museum’s temporary exhibitions and permanent collection, new classrooms and performance spaces.
Video of the table in action, from development to installation.
Abbott Miller’s 2wice iPad App Featured in the Los Angeles Times
Quick Link: Abbott Miller’s 2wice iPad App Featured in the Los Angeles Times
2wice Merce Cunningham iPad App Featured on Unbeige
Quick Link: 2wice Merce Cunningham iPad App Featured on Unbeige
2wice Launches New iPad App and Website
2wice, the visual and performing arts journal, has always provided an alternative performance space for dance, one that had the advantage of being a permanent record of this most ephemeral art form. Now 2wice has published its first iPad app, “Merce Cunningham Event,” a tribute to the legendary choreographer (1919-2009) that combines live-action video, interviews and historic dance photography originally developed in collaboration with Cunningham. The app is available for free downloads through iTunes, building upon Cunningham’s lifelong interest in using technology to present dance in new ways.
New Work: Robert A.M. Stern Architects
Robert A.M. Stern may be known as a pioneering postmodernist, but the term doesn’t begin to cover the stylistic versatility and wide-ranging output of his architectural practice. Among different audiences, Robert A.M. Stern Architects is known equally for everything from the design of houses and apartment buildings, to the design of office towers, academic buildings, and whole towns. Pentagram’s Michael Bierut has designed a new website for RAMSA that captures the firm’s expansive portfolio.
Bierut has a longstanding relationship with Stern, having designed a series of five monographs on the architect’s work, beginning with Robert A.M. Stern Buildings in 1996, followed by Houses (1997), Houses and Gardens (2005), Buildings and Towns (2007), and On Campus (2010). The distinctive design of the books reflects Stern’s own architectural approach—the contemporary interpretation of classical forms in a confident, even monumental form. Bierut has also designed two books of architectural writing by Stern, The Philip Johnson Tapes and Architecture on the Edge of Postmodernism.
Lisa Strausfeld Announces New Data Viz Venture
After a decade as a partner, Lisa Strausfeld is leaving Pentagram to embark on a new phase of her career as an entrepreneur of information-based projects.
Strausfeld’s first venture is Major League Politics, an online startup with the goal of making government activity as engaging and addictive as sports. The project is one that Strausfeld has been thinking about for years.
“Thanks to the Open Government Directive, today we have unprecedented access to government data,” says Strausfeld. “That, combined with a rising literacy and interest in information visualization and an increased urgency for public engagement with government over the past few years has motivated me to finally make this vision of what I call ‘civic entertainment’ a reality.”
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GE Capital CFO Survey Data Visualization Featured on Information Aesthetics Blog
Quick Link: GE Capital CFO Survey Data Visualization Featured on Information Aesthetics Blog
Pentagram Launches New Website
Every designer or design firm faces the challenge of how best to show their portfolio online. Which projects make the cut? How many images? What do potential clients want to see? For our new site, launched last week, we’ve taken the maximal approach, creating an image-driven, easily navigable collection of hundreds of our projects that will continue to grow as we finish new work. The site allows users to view multiple projects at once and take a closer look at portfolios of each project.
Eddie Opara Joins Pentagram’s New York Office
This week Pentagram’s newest partner, Eddie Opara, officially joined our New York office. Eddie is a multi-faceted designer whose work encompasses brand identity, publications, environments, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media. He has developed numerous applications including the MiG, an innovative content and asset management system for off and online applications that is currently in use by various clientele.
Eddie brings with him the team from Map, the studio he founded in 2005: Brankica Harvey, senior designer; Raed Atoui, software developer; and Frank LaRocca, designer.
Eddie’s wide-ranging practice complements Pentagram’s multi-disciplinary approach. “Bringing a diversity of design skills laced with innovation to Pentagram is paramount,” says Eddie. “I strive to conceive and build compelling work through my love of strategy, design and technology.”
Paula Scher says: “Eddie represents the new generation of graphic designers for whom all forms of media and all dimensions of design are not separated from the initial concept but are an integral part of the total thought.”
On the occasion of his joining, Eddie and his team have developed a new Pentagram app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad that showcases his portfolio. Download it here. Look for future updates of the app featuring more work from our studio.
Continue reading "Eddie Opara Joins Pentagram’s New York Office"
Quick Links
- Pentagram Papers 32: No Waste Featured on Cool Hunting
- Paula Scher's Maps Exhibition Reviewed in Artforum
- Abbott Miller to Speak at the Type Directors Club
- A Short History of Pentagram's Role in the London Design Festival
- Harry Pearce's 5x15 Talk Now Online
- Eddie Opara to Speak at Design Indaba
- Paula Scher to Speak at PennDesign