Episoder
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In this episode Amber Asay and Lisa Congdon talk about the legend that you may have not heard about, Gere Kavanaugh, who's work spans 1950's through 2020. She's another Cranbook Academy and multi-hyphenate designer, and has the most impressive repertoire of work.
Sources:
Architectural Digest Articles:
A Look at the Life's Work of Multi-Hyphenate Designer Gere Kavanaugh
The Unlikely Story of One of General Motors's First Female Designers
LA Times: Gere Kavanaugh’s color avalanche brightened midcentury California design
2019 Book: A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer (written by Louise Sandhaus, Kat Catmur)
Metropolis: Gere Kavanaugh: Pioneer With a Penchant for Color
AIGA Medal Article
AIGA Short
Gere Kavanaugh, born in Memphis in 1929, is a legendary American designer known for her vibrant and innovative contributions across industrial design, textiles, and interiors. Educated at the Memphis Academy of Art and Cranbrook Academy of Art, she was influenced by greats like Charles Eames and Eero Saarinen.
In the 1950s, Kavanaugh broke barriers at General Motors as one of the few female industrial designers. In 1960, she founded Gere Kavanaugh Designs in Los Angeles, known for bold colors and playful forms. Her work spans textiles, furniture, and interiors, always pushing the boundaries of traditional design.
Kavanaugh's influence extends through her collaborations, mentorship, and numerous awards, including the AIGA Medal in 2010. Her legacy is marked by innovation, courage, and an unwavering dedication to making the world a more beautiful, functional place.
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Thank you to Lisa Congdon!
https://lisacongdon.com/
https://www.instagram.com/lisacongdon
Her exhibit is up at St. Mary's until June 23, 2024: https://www.stmarys-ca.edu/museum-art/lisa-congdon-hold-it-lightly
Lisa Congdon an internationally known fine artist, illustrator and writer. She makes art for clients around the globe, including The Library of Congress, Target, Wired Magazine, Amazon, Google, Schwinn, Warby Parker, Method, Comme des Garcons, REI and MoMa, among many others. She exhibits internationally, including solo shows at Saint Mary's College Museum of Art (California), Chefas Projects (Oregon) and Paradigm Gallery (Philadelphia), along with group shows at Hashimoto Contemporary in Los Angeles, Museum of Design Atlanta and The Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. She is the author of ten books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist and Find your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic. Lisa is self-taught and didn’t achieve momentum in her career until she was nearly 40 years old. Despite her untraditional path, Lisa has achieved recognition, not just as an artist, but as a leader in the industry for her work in social justice, mentoring and teaching. In March of 2021, she was named “One of the 50 Most Inspiring People and Companies According to Industry Creatives” published by AdWeek. When she's not making art, you can find her racing her bike around Oregon. She lives and works in Portland, Oregon. -
Today I am joined by Catherine Casalino to talk about the life and work of the incredible graphic designer and artist, Barbara Kruger. From her graphic design background, how that influenced her art, to the meaning and impact of her collaged artwork. We even dive into the ironic cycle of her regurgitated work being regurgitated by the skateboard brand, Supreme, and their head-scratching lawsuit story.
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Barbara Kruger was born in 1945 in Newark, New Jersey. Kruger briefly attended Syracuse University, then Parsons School of Design in New York City, where she studied with artists and photographers Marvin Israel and Diane Arbus. Kruger worked in graphic design for Condé Nast Publications at Mademoiselle magazine, and was promoted to head designer within a year, at the age of twenty-two. Kruger has described her time in graphic design as “the biggest influence on my work…[it] became, with a few adjustments, my ‘work’ as an artist.”In the early 1970s, Kruger started showing artwork in galleries in New York. At the time, she was mainly working in weaving and painting. However, she felt that her artwork lacked meaning, and in 1976, she quit creating art entirely for a year. She took a series of teaching positions, including at University of California, Berkeley. When she began making art again in 1977, she had moved away from her earlier style into photo and text collages. In 1979, Kruger developed her signature style using large-scale black-and-white images overlaid with text. She repurposed found images, juxtaposing them with short, pithy phrases printed in Futura Bold or Helvetica Extra Bold typeface in black, white, or red text bars. In addition to creating text and photographic works, Kruger has produced video and audio works, written criticism, taught classes, curated exhibitions, designed products, such as T-shirts and mugs, and developed public projects, such as billboards, bus wraps, and architectural interventions.
Kruger addresses media and politics in their native tongue: sensational, authoritative, and direct. Personal pronouns like “you” and “I” are staples of Kruger’s practice, bringing the viewer into each piece. “Direct address has motored my work from the very beginning,” Kruger said. “I like it because it cuts through the grease.” Kruger’s work prompts us to interrogate our own positions; in the artist’s words, “to question and change the systems that contain us.” She demands that we consider how our identities are formed within culture, through representation in language and image.
______Thank you Catherine for joining me!
catherinecasalino.com
@cat.casalino
Catherine Casalino is the principal and creative director of Casalino Design, an independent design company in New York City, focusing on book design and branding.
Prior to founding Casalino Design in 2016, Catherine worked in-house as an art director and designer at Simon & Schuster, Random House, and Hachette Book Group, and she began her career at Rodrigo Corral Design.
Over the past two decades, Catherine’s work has been recognized by numerous international design organizations and publications. She has served as a competition chair and judge for The Type Directors Club, The One Club, The Art Directors Club, and the Association of American University Presses.
She frequently speaks about design at art schools and organizations, is an instructor on Domestika.com, and volunteers as a mentor for Alphabettes—a community that supports women in type.
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Barbara Stauffacher Solomon is a prolific designer, muralist, landscape designer, and architect.
Born in San Francisco in 1928, she spent her formative years studying ballet, cultivating a deep appreciation for rhythm, movement, and expression.
Her path took a transformative turn when she journeyed to Switzerland to study at the Basel School of Design. It was here, that Barbara immersed herself in the principles of the International Typographic Style.
Returning to San Francisco in the 1950s, Barbara found herself at the forefront of a cultural revolution, she burst onto the design scene with her groundbreaking concept of "Supergraphics" when she became involved in the design of Sea Ranch, the experimental utopian town on the coast of Northern California. Her work at Sea Ranch embodied a holistic approach to design, emphasizing the symbiotic relationship between humans and their environment.
She once famously declared, "I'm not an artist, I'm a designer," emphasizing her commitment to functionality and purpose in all her creations.
She's not just a trailblazer; she's a visionary whose indomitable spirit continues to shape the way we think about design and innovation.
Sources:
Hall of Femmes
Why? Why Not
Adobe Create YouTube
Interview with Wallpaper Magazine
Thank you Rachel for joining us!
rachelgogel.com
@rgogelRachel Gogel (she/her) is a Parisian creative director, designer, speaker, mentor, and educator whose career has followed the rise and dominance of an entire era of digital design.
Based in San Francisco, she runs her own small consultancy as an independent design executive and has led major brand initiatives at GQ, The New York Times, Meta, Godfrey Dadich, Airbnb, and Dropbox. Now working as a solopreneur, Rachel has influenced many exciting projects for her clients — from launching editorial publications from scratch, to crafting story-driven digital experiences, to leading org design efforts, to designing TV show pitch decks and book covers for influential public figures, to building brand systems for global media and entertainment companies in a fractional capacity. As an experienced people manager, she is committed to designing teams that build brands — with a focus on culture and technology. Having stepped into interim executive creative director, head of brand, and design director roles in recent years, she has helped companies through transitional periods, built out their cross-disciplinary creative teams, and trained her full-time replacement(s).
When she is not consulting, Rachel teaches in the Master’s of Interaction Design program at the California College of the Arts (CCA). She is also a passionate advocate for gender equity in the design industry. For 2.5 years, she has served on the AIGA San Francisco Board of Directors with a focus on amplifying women and non-binary designers’ collective power and visibility through a program called Women in Leadership & Design (WILD), for which Rachel is the Chair. Rachel also actively participates in Neol and Queer Design Club. Her words and actions over the years highlight how she's come to care deeply about using her voice and privilege to help create connected communities, especially for women.
Nominated for a 2022 Webby for her work on Departures, Rachel has been recognized by Inc. as one of 2016’s “30 under 30 Movers and Shakers” and by Forbes as one of 2015’s “30 under 30” in media. She has been featured in publications such as PRINT Magazine, Design by Women, Fast Company, among others. After hours, you can find Rachel museum hopping, planning her next trip abroad, or relaxing with her wife at home.
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On today’s episode, we’ll discuss the life and work of industrial designer, Evelyn Ackerman, who’s work was prolific during the Mid-Century California Modernism era in the 50s and 60s But what makes this episode even more exciting is that we’re joined by her daughter, Laura Ackerman-Shaw, who offers a unique perspective and personal insights on the incredible work of her mother.
Laura Ackerman-Shaw, is a Stanford University graduate with a bachelors and masters degree in English literature, boasts 35 years of experience in publishing and has been the Executive Director of Ackerman Modern since 2015. She passionately preserves and promotes her parents’ design legacy through museum exhibitions, presentations, scholarships under their name, preserving their archive of work, writing articles, and licensing her parents products with brands like Design Within Reach and CB2. Based in the Bay Area, Laura, her husband Marc, and their son Aaron live in a vibrant mid-century modern Eichler home, embodying the artistic essence inherited from her renowned designer parents.
Evelyn Ackerman, alongside her husband Jerome, was a leading figure in Mid-Century California Modernism. Her colorful and whimsical designs spanned ceramics, mosaics, tapestries, woodcarvings, and hardware, embodying the Bauhaus philosophy of blending art, craft, and industry for accessible quality goods. Her design style ranged from geometric minimalism to biomorphic abstraction to figurative stylization, highlighting her intuitive use of pattern, color, line, proportion, and composition.
Evelyn and Jerome’s pieces from the early 1950s through the early 1980s gained recognition nationally and internationally, noting the cultural nuances encountered in Evelyn’s creative journey. Her and her husband’s timeless creations adorned postwar modern interiors, fueling California’s housing boom, have been seen in museums and even on sets in movies and television. Despite retiring from manufacturing in 1979, their legacy endures, captivating collectors today and resonating with a new generation drawn to their collaborative spirit and unwavering dedication to their artistic vision.
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Here's where to follow the Ackerman Modern legacy to stay up to date on exhibits and future brand collaborations:
https://ackermanmodern.com/
https://www.instagram.com/ackermanmodern/CB2 Collection as part of their Design Legends series:
https://www.cb2.com/collections/ackerman-modern/1IG Reel of her work:
https://www.instagram.com/p/C6gk90qrpYl/ -
In today's episode, I’m joined by the incredible designer, Meryl Vedros, as we dive into the remarkable life Gunta Stölzl, a visionary force at the iconic Bauhaus in Germany. We uncover what it truly meant to be a woman navigating the male-dominated world of design during the early 20th century.
From her groundbreaking textile designs to her influential role as the only female master at the Bauhaus, we'll explore the enduring legacy of Gunta Stölzl and how her innovative spirit continues to inspire designers around the globe.
As the only female master of the Bauhaus, textile artist Gunta Stölzl is arguably the single most influential figure in the modern history of Western woven art. Under her leadership, the school's weaving workshop was transformed from a neglected department to one of its most successful facilities. During her tenure, she updated the focus from pictorial work to more industrial designs, introducing radical ideas from the world of modern art to weaving, and initiated experiments in materials and methods that helped shift weaving into the modern age.
Sources
2019 Book “Bauhaus Women: A global perspective”
2022 Daily Art Magazine article
1999 Bauhaus Book by Anja Baumhoff
2012 Talk at The Barbican Centre in London by daughter Monika “Bauhaus: Art as Life”
Diary entries from Gunta herself.Slit Tapestry Red/Green
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Dessau-1925-1931/Wall-Hangings-and-Carpet/i-4h4SxCp
Tapestry Paintings / Designs
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Dessau-1925-1931/Designs-for-Carpets/i-6fRNWJH
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Dessau-1925-1931/Designs-for-Wall-Hangings/i-xJrzrhM
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Dessau-1925-1931/Designs-for-Wall-Hangings/i-tJbfVbH
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Dessau-1925-1931/Designs-for-Carpets/i-CqVr29m
From Sketch to Final
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Weimar-1919-1925/Designs-for-Wall-Hanging/i-VxXtPrN
https://www.guntastolzl.org/Works/Bauhaus-Weimar-1919-1925/Wall-Hangings-and-Carpet/i-3ZMsh3B
Thank you Meryl Vedros!
https://www.vedrosstudio.com
https://www.instagram.com/vedrosstudio/
