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PREFACE
It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million listeners. Terrestrial television took 13 years to reach 50 million users. The Internet took 4 years to reach 50 million people (1). In today’s world, information moves fast, really fast. In fact it is so fast that the record speed for the internet is 186 GBPS – in other words, speeds this fast would allow a person to download 100,000 Blu-Ray discs in a mere 24 hours (2). The way information is presented to a global audience is critical in forming a person’s perception of society. Information is communicated in a number of ways including through text and image. With an abundance of new and more efficient forms of communication, the digital age provides people around the world with nearly unlimited information with the click of a mouse.
TYPE HISTORY 01
SOCIAL/POLITICAL 02
POP CULTURE 03
BIBLIOGRAPHY 04
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In an effort to end the “font wars”adobe and microsoft collaborated on a new font format called OpenType. This program was an extraction of TrueType with PostScript font data.This format had several goals of having broad multi-platform support, better protection of font data, smaller file sizes, and more
TYPOGRAPHY TIMELINE
Crackhouse Jeremy Dean
Created by rubbing a Letraset sans serif typeface and then lifting up the sheet multiple times to create a distressed feel, feeding into the “grunge” typographic style of the times
1990 1995 2000
Georgia
Matthew Carter
Remedy Frank Heine
Designed as a screen font and was offered for free download through Microsoft. This type face is intentionally neutral to provide widespread acceptance
This typeface is the perfect representation of the revolt against Helvetica, the modernist’s pride and joy. It sports a spiratic baseline, random ornamentation, and handwritten qualities.
FF Scala Martin Majoor
Created the same year as FontShop, FF Scala was the first FF (FontFont) face released by FSI. It was the first of the new collection of Dutch Types to re-establish type design.
Bits Paul Elliman Poetica Robert Slimbach
Considered to be the first italic type family where you can set hierarchical texts in italics.
Inspired by objects found on the street
Body Type Peter Bil’ak
A display font made from twenty-six high resolution images of models shaped into letterforms
Lost Type C0-OP Riley Cran and Tyler Galphin
Magma Stone Type Foundry
This foundry is the first of its kind. It features unique typefaces created by contributors from all over the world. They believe that quality fonts should be made available to anyone who wants to create beautiful design
A Humanist sans serif similar to Gill Sans. Can be used very small to ensure readability
2005 2010 2015
Silencio Sans Jessica Hische
Inspired by “Old Hollywood” movie title credits.
Twin Erik van Blokland and Just van Rossum
A typeface that was capable of responding, in real time, to urban conditions like wind and temperature. Text set in 300+ character twin could change from “formal” to “round” to “eccentric” as the temperature and wind change.
Base 900 Zuzana Licko
A modular, geometric sans-serif typeface of the computer technology era with a refined touch
Obsidian
Hoefler&Co.
A type family that breaks from the constraints of historical style, while honoring the traditions of typography from the industrial age.
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19 9 0
Tim Berners-Lee develops HyperText Markup Language (HTML) giving rise to the World Wide Web.
“Archie”, the first attempt at indexing the Internet, is created by Peter Deutsch
TECHNOLOGY
19 9 3 The number of hosts breaks 1,000,000
19 9 4 The White House launches its website SPAM is created by commercial sites and mass marketing campaigns
19 9 5
CompuServe, America Online, and Prodigy start providing dial-up Internet Sun Microsystems releases the Internet programming language called Java The Vatican launches its website
19 9 6
Approximately 45 million people are using the Internet and 43.2 million households own a PC
19 9 7
Microsoft invests $150 million in Apple, which was struggling at the time The term “weblog” is coined (and later shortened to blog)
19 9 8 Google opens its first office in Californina
19 9 9
Wi-Fi becomes a part of computing language
College student Shawn Fanning invents Napster, which allowed users to swap music over the Internet. The number of Internet users reaches 150 million MySpace.com is launched
2000
Viruses begin to enter the computer realm Twitter.com is created American Online buys Time Warner for $16 billion – the biggest merger of all time.
2 0 01
Apple unveils Mac OS X operating system while Microsoft rolls out Windows XP 9.8 billion electronic messages are sent daily Wikipedia is launched
2002 There are now 544.2 million Internet users worldwide.
2003
President Bush signs the Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act (CAN-SPAM) Apple introduces the iTunes music store.
2004 Mike Zuckerberg launches Facebook.com
2005
YouTube.com is launched
2006
There are more than 92 million websites online
2007
The online game World of Warcraft hits a milestone and surpasses 9 million subscribers worldwide in July.
2008
Microsoft offers to buy Yahoo for $44.6 billion. Federal courts order disabling of Wikileaks.org – a website that discloses confidential information
2 010
Apple unveils the iPad
2 014
Edward Snowden turns over thousands of classified documents to the general media
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DAVID CARSON Originally getting his degree in sociology, Carson entered the field of design at the age of 26 after receiving a flyer for a Summer graphic design program at the University of Arizona that was originally intended for his students. After attending this program, Carson enrolled in a Summer workshop in Rapperswil, Switzerland. Where he was challenged by typesetter Hans-Rudolf Lutz to find reason for shaping form in specific ways. Later on, Carson’s first job as an art director was for Transworld Skateboarding from 1984-1987. In 1992, when Marvin Scott Jarrett launched RAY GUN, Carson was asked to be the founding art director. During his time there, his visual voice became more famous than the music content that the magazine was founded on. Carson later remarked, “Ray gun had no grid, formula or format, letting the music and individual articles dictate the direction of the design and layout. Every page was an entirely new design assignment, making it a lot more work than most magazines, but also a lot more fun, and I believe with more effective results.” (1)
From 1995-2003 Carson ran his own studio, working with clients such as Nike, Toyota, Quicksilver and MTV. He has also served as the creative director for Bose. Carson’s approach to design is non-conventional, particularly because he had no formal training, which he says helped him a lot because never learned the things “not to do”. His interest in sociology helped him enter the world of editorial design, because it had real stories, about real people and events. He would start out by reading the brief, article, or other material he is given, which would then give his designs a direction. He tried to reinforce visually what is written, spoken, or sung. This creates a connection with the viewer on an emotional level, which he believes is effective and lasting. AIGA says that, “His legendary disregard for readerly conventions has made him a hero to some and an agent of ugliness to others.”
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PAULA SCHER Scher received her BFA from the Tyler School of Art and a Doctor of Fine Arts from Corcoran College of Art and Design. Her teaching career includes School of Visual Arts, Cooper Union, Yale University and the Tyler School of Art. Paula went into college originally for painting. She felt like she was’nt good at anything until she found graphic design in her 3rd year at the Tyler school. From school she then moved to New York City. Her first design job was designing the inside of children’s books. After that, she went to CBS records but shortly left them for Atlantic Records in order to design covers. After only a year at Atlantic, CBS records hired her back as the East Coast Art Director at the age of 25. It was through her 10 years of designing album covers that Scher found out how to present her work and make her clients appreciate it. Scher has been a forerunner of the international design firm Pentagram since 1991. Her career hit an all time high when her typography became popular within the design community. Through pentagram, Scher has designed branding Identity for clients such as The New York Times, Target, and The Daily Show with John Stewart (2). It was with Pentagram in the 90s that Scher created the identity for the Public Theatre in New York City. Scher created a language that directly mirrored that of street typography.
The logo is made out of different weights of the same typeface taken from Rob Roy Kelly’s book American Woodtype that was later made into the typeface Akzidenz Grotesk. It was made to have a sense of evolution from the P to the C to further emphasize the word and meaning of “public”. After the 1995 poster for a production of Savion Glover’s Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring in ‘Da Funk, shown on the left hand page, that the Publics typographic style emerged throughout all of the Public Theater’s branding. The branding continues to change and stay current in the highly competitive theatre scene in NYC (3). Her current identity and environmental graphics take the same form, taking from what she has learned from her 10 years designing covers. Scher believes that doing design isnt just for the “public good.” She explains that “people think that if you design something to help for a tramatic event you are a hero, but if you design something for an instituation such as a bank, that is a bad design moral”. She believes that all design matters and that the most responsible design is that of which takes something “bad” and makes it great by changing its expectations (4).
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LOIUS FILI Fili grew up in an Italian-American household in New Jersey. In high school, she taught herself calligraphy with common everyday writing utensils. She originally went to Skidmore College to study studio art but discovered that graphic design was the best avenue to travel. Inspired by her love for Italian cooking, her senior project was a hand-lettered cookbook (5). It was on her first freelance assignment for a book publishing house, Knopf, where Fili found her desire to work with book design. At the young age of 25, Fili became the senior designer for American designer Herb Lubalin. Her new work atmosphere, where type was the forefront of design, had a profound effect on Fili’s stylistic development. In 1978 Fili left her job with Herb Lubablin for a position as an art director for Random House Publishing. During her time there, she designed over 2,000 book covers, in an effortless manner that subtly gave any one of her books a wonderful feel.
In 1980, Fili wanted to open her own studio which would focus on hand-lettered packaging, logos, and restaurant identities. During the run of her studio, she has designed for the School of Visual Arts, Sarabeth’s, Good Housekeeping, and hundreds of restaurants in New York City (6). Fili has published many books such as Shadow Type, Grafica Strada, and most recently Elegantissma. Her books showcase her hand-lettering styles and techniques and are a great resource for designers. September 8th-9th of 2014, Fili held an exhibition New York City to showcase Elegantissma. This showcase featured her favorite works from throughout her career as a designer. Louise Fili’s sense of design brings out the “old” in the “new”. Her hand-crafted typefaces are transcendent and give an elegant touch to her designs.
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STEFAN SAGMEISTER Born in Bregenz, Austria, Sagmeister began his career at the young age of 15 for the magazine Alphorn. It was during this endeavour that he found that designing layouts was a lot more fun than actually writing the article he was hired to write. In 1985, he earned his M.F.A at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna. While he was in school at the Pratt Institute on a full-bright scholarship years later, Sagmeister would start calling his favorite designer, Tibor Kalman, over and over for a year and a half until he agreed to meet with him and look at this portfolio. It was five years later that Sagmeister was finally hired at Kalman’s design firm M&Co. Kalman’s wisdom and driven advice had a deep influence on Sagmeister at the start of his own career. Kalman’s strong desire to jump from one field to another influenced Sagmeister in a profound way. In the 90s, Sagmeister turned to designing album covers for musicians like Mick Jagger, David Byrne, and Jay-Z. He used printing and packaging techniques such as die-cuts, model building, and more to give the covers a deeper sense of the artist’s persona. I.D magazine critiqued that his CD packaging was what poetry is to prose: distilled, intense, cunning, and utterly complete.
Two of his covers received Grammy Awards for Album Cover design (7). Later, in 2008, Sagmeister took a year off of work and travel to Bali. It was during his time there that he was able to devote a lot of time to learning new concepts. He would sometimes end up not working with the medium he started exploring with. He ultimately decided that he would stick to design and see if he had anything to say with that (8). Stagmeister soon had something to say, something extraordinary. In 2012, Sagmeister tackled the scientific evidence of Happiness. Sagmeister pulled research from two pioneers of positive psychology, Martin Seligman and Jonathan Haidt. He used this scientific evidence to to create a exhibition that included kinetic type, video, interior space design, among many other mediums. Currently, Sagmeister has been production with his first film, a film on happiness (9). Stefan Sagmeister rethinks convention, finds infinite possibilities, and alters popular perceptions with typography. He uses many platforms to express his typographic style such as books environmental art, conceptual exhibitions, and as of this year, video.
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The first ethnically targeted bombing in Argentinian history occurs on July 18, 1994 in a Jewish community in Argentina.
World Trade Center Bombing
HISTORICAL TIMELINE The Gulf War
August 2 1990 - 28 February 1991 Iraq invades Kuwait resulting in intervention from UN forces, launching The Gulf War.
Somali Civil War
1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis
January 1991-Ongoing Conflict between local clan tribes and government organization has led to an ongoing “power-vacuum” conflict.
February 11, 1990 Nelson Mandela is released after 30 years of imprisonment.
1990
Bill Clinton takes the presidency January 20, 1993
February 26, 1993 A truck bomb attacks north tower, killing six and injuring thousands.
A political stand-off between Russian President Boris Yeltsin and the Supreme Soviet Congress ultimately leads to an outbreak of violence, killing upwards of 2,000 people.
Los Angeles Riots of 1992 The riots resulted in 53 deaths and 5,500 property fires in a 100-square-mile (260 km2) zone.
1993
Tajikistan Civil War 5 May 1992 – 27 June 1997 Underrepresentation of ethnic groups sparks a civil war killing 50,000-100,000.
The European Union is formed in 1992 under the Maastricht Treaty.
Yugoslav Wars
January 1, 1993 The peaceful seperation of Czechslovakia.
1991-2001 A series of violent ethnic conflicts after the dissolution of Yugoslavia in 1991. Major Events included: War in Slovenia (1991) Croatian War of Independence (1991–1995) Bosnian War (1992–1995) Kosovo War (1998–1999), including the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia Insurgency in the Preševo Valley (1999-2001) Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia (2001)
German Reunification October 3, 1990
The Rwandan Genocide
100-day period from April 7, 1994-July The Hutu peoples lead mass killings against the Tutsi population, killing 500,000 plus.
Chechen Wars
1994-Ongoing Ethnic conflict between the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and the Russian Federation.
Oslo Accords
September 13, 1993 Palestine Liberation Organization recognizes Israel’s right to exist, while Israel permitted the creation of an autonomous Palestinian National Authority. This marked the end of the First Intifada.
First and Second Congo Wars
October 24, 1996 - July 2003 Rwanda invades Zaire replacing the decades ruling dictator with rebel leadership. After continuing conflict, the war resulted in the killings of over 5.4 million people.
NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) is enacted January 1, 1994.
Oklahoma City Bombing
April 19, 1995 Two American terrorists bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City resulting in the deaths of 168 people and at least $652 million
Colombine High School Shooting April 20, 1999 Two senior students murder 13 individuals at a high school in Colorado and injure 21 others.
August 31, 1997 Princess Diana dies in car crash.
Portugal hands the soverignty of Macau to China December 20, 1999.
Monica Lewinsky Scandal
Accusations come to fruition about Bill Clinton having an affair with 22 year old Monica Lewinsky.
1996
Tokyo Subway Attack
March 20, 1995 Religious Cult Aum Shinriko uses Sarin Gas to attack a subway station.
1999
Kyoto Protocol
December 11, 1997 83 Countries sign in order to take action against global climate change.
Hugo Chávez becomes president of Venezuela on February 2, 1999.
Taliban Forces Sieze Control of Afghanistan 1996
The “Million Man March”
October 16, 1995 Over 800,000 African American men rally in D.C. to better the status of African American men in society and politics.
July 1994, Kim-Il Sung dies, his son, Kim Jong-Il, assumes control of North Korea.
July 1, 1997 United Kingdom hands the sovereignty of Hong Kong to China.
May 2, 1997 Tony Blair becomes British Prime Minister.
Pervez Musharraf takes over the democratically elected Pakastani Government. October 12, 1999
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USA PATRIOT Act
Enacted October 26, 2001 After the events of September 11th, the PATRIOT act goes into effect allowing government surveilance on persons suspected of terroristic activities.
November, 7, 2000 George W. Bush is elected into office.
War on Terror in Afghanistan
October 7, 2001-December 2014 American troops are sent into Afghanistan beginning the “Opperation Enduring Freedom” campaign.
Goodridge v. Dept. of Public Health
November 18, 2003 The landmark court case legalized gay marriage in Massachussets.
January 3, 2003 – January 3, 2007 Democrat Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female Speaker of the House.
Septemeber 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks
November 22, 2005 Angela Merkel becomes the first female Prime Minister of Germany.
19 hijackers take over four airplanes and crash them into both World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon, and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania killing nearly 3,000 people and injuring over 6,000. All civilian air traffic is suspended for 3 days.
2000
2003
December 13, 2003 Saddam Hussein is captured by US forces.
May 7, 2000 Vladimir Putin becomes the President of Russia.
October 3, 2006 North Korea conducts its first nuclear tests.
November 25, 2002 The Department of Homeland Security is founded in the United States.
The Great Recession begins 2007-2009
2006
Arctic Sea Ice hits a record low in summer 2007.
December 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein is executed.
War with Iraq
20 March 2003 – 18 December 2011 The United States goes to war with Iraq and disassembles the regime under Saddam Hussein.
2002, the Euro goes into circulation.
January 8, 2002 The “No Child Left Behind” act goes into effect as part of education reforms.
War and Genocide in Darfur 26 February 2003– present.
Virginia Tech Massacre
April 17, 2007 student shoots 32 students and teachers and then commits suicide.
The London Bombings
July 7, 2005 London’s public transport systems are attacked by suicide bombers, killing 56 and injuring 700.
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act
Passed by Congress October 22, 2009 The act expanded upon the 1969 Federal hate-crime law, to include crimes conducted on a count of a victim’s actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability.
Barak Obama assumes the presidency January 20, 2009. In 2008, oil prices reach a record $147 a barrel.
Occupy Wallstreet Movement
September 17, 2011 Protests abound due to continued economic stagnation.
December 17, 2010 Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation in Tunisia begins the Arab Spring movement.
Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill
20 April – 15 July 2010 An oil rig owned by BP in the Gulf of Mexico explodes. It is considered the largest accidental marine oil spill in history.
2009
2011
Global Financial Crisis
September 7, 2008 Severely contracted liquidity in the global credit markets and insolvency threats to investment banks and other institutions plunges the global financial situation into turmoil.
Russo-Georgian War August 7-12, 2008.
Tea Party Protests
February 27, 2009-March 21, 2010 Protests focused on smaller government, fiscal responsibility, individual freedoms and a conservative interpretation of the Constitution.
Osama bin Laden is killed by US forces May 2, 2011.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act March 23, 2010 “Obamacare” is enacted, it was the largest regulatory overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system since Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.
Syrian Civil War begins on March 15, 2011-Present.
Boston Marathon Bombing
April 15, 2013 Two terrorists detonate a bomb after a race in Boston kiling 3 and injuring 264. ISIS destroys numerous historic monuments in Iraq during 2015.
August 9, 2014 Officer Darren Wilson is not charged in the shooting death of Michael Brown inciting protests and riots against racism and police brutality in the St. Louis area.
2014
PRESENT
Gaza Israeli conflict of 2014 8 July – 26 August 2014 (ceasefire).
Isis Invades Mosul Iraq June 2014.
ISIS conflict begins in Syria on January 2, 2014.
June 26, 2013 The Supreme Court strikes down the Defense of Marriage Act DOMA (1996), which banned the federal recognition of same-sex marriages and refused to recognize the legal standing of proponents of Proposition 8. Resulted in re-legalization of gay marriage in California.
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19 9 0 s M U S I C There were many genres of music that gained even more popularity during the 1990s such as pop and rap - especially with the younger generations. Some of the major music groups that typified 90’s music were: The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, NYSNC, Nirvana, Brittany Spears, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, and DMX.
2000s MUSIC
The melismatic style of signing made popular by Christina Aguilera and artists alike began to take a back seat to artists like Kesha and Katy Perry, who sold much more than their voices. In 2011 girl groups and boy bands have returned to the mainstream for the first time since the 90s. By this time several different types of pop including: dance and synthpop have become the driving force in mainstream music. Alternative movements, like those of the hipster subculture include: Indie rock, indie pop, and indie folk, which have come into the mainstream focus since the early 2010s.
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CINEMA The 2000s saw an exciting amount of diversity within the film industry. By this time CGI (computer generated graphics) had become popular with Pixar movies such as Shrek, The Incredibles, and many more. Other genres such as comic book adaptations, musicals, foreign, and independent films began to find popularity. It was in 2012 that Wes Anderson, an American filmmaker since the 1980s, began to pick up more mainstream interest with his highly colorful and thoughtful compositions. 2013 - present films often use fantastical colors to convey emotions though more than the setting and acting alone, making film a more artful experience, some films being created to celebrate “film art� in and of itself.
THEATRE
By the late 1990’s, almost every show that made it to Broadway was a corporate production. With the average musical budget running over $8,000,000, it took a lot of people to finance a show, and nearly every one of those donors wanted some say in the production. This left no room for amateurs, rebels, or basic artists. By the 2000s critics began to consider the constant adaptations of films into plays and further, into a redefinition of Broadway as a tourist attraction, as opposed to a creative outlet.
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THE GRUNGE Every grunge artist has a style of his or her own, there is no single way to view grunge art but even so, it has a very unique look classic to the 1990s - Sometimes an image is composed by layering images and snippets in a way that creates a more complex piece although, this does not necessarily make it “grungier” but “grunginess” does not end there. There is something immensely freeing in grunge photography, which brings the viewer out of his or her (often boring) headspace into a new and creative world. Grunge shows that not everything needs to be “perfect and pretty.” By venturing into the unorthodox, the ugly, and the dangerous, Grunge style shows no boundaries and no limitations. It does not strive for conformity like much of the pop-culture world, it strives to challenge and be challenged, breaking away from the “ticky-tacky box” style life of the postwar World War Two generation.
STREET ART
Street artists do not aspire to change the definition of an artwork, but rather to question the existing environment with its own language. The motivations and objectives that drive street artists are as varied as the artists themselves. Street artists aspire to have their work communicate with everyday people about socially relevant themes. There is a strong current of activism and subversion in urban art making Street Art a powerful platform for reaching the public and a potent form of political expression for the oppressed, or people with little resources to create change. Common variants include ad busting, “subvertising� and other culture jamming means, the abolishment of private property, and, in general, reclaiming the streets for the people.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY (1) Jake Hird. “20+ More Mind Blowing Media Statistics.” Last modfied August 17, 2009. https://econsultancy.com/blog/4402-20+-more-mindblowing-social-media-statistics. Econsultancy.com/blog. (2) Shared by datajack. “ Broadband Internet Speeds - Facts and Figures.” Posted on January 26, 2012. http://visual.ly/broadband-internet-speedsfun-facts-figures. “Technology”. Visually. (3) Designboom. “Interview with Graphic Designer David Carson.” Last modified September, 24, 2014. http://www.designboom.com/design/ interview-with-graphic-designer-david-carson-09-22-2013/. Designboom. com. (4) AIGA. “Inspiration.” Last modified 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-paulascher/. AIGA bibliography. “Paula Scher.” (5) Identities. “New Work: The Public Theater.” Last modified June 12, 2006. http://new.pentagram.com/2008/06/new-work-the-public-theater-1/. Pentagram.com. (6) Ryan and Tina Essmaker. “Paula Scher: Artist/Designer.” Last modified November 19, 2013. https://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/paula-scher. The Great Discontent. (7) AIGA. “Inspiration.” Last modified 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-louise-fili/. AIGA bibliography. “Louise Fili.” (8) AIGA. “Inspiration.” Last modified 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-louise-fili/. AIGA bibliography. “Louise Fili.” (9) AIGA. “Inspiration.” Last modified 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/. AIGA bibliography. “Stefan Sagmeister.” (10) AIGA. “Inspiration.” Last modified 2015. http://www.aiga.org/medalist-stefan-sagmeister/. AIGA bibliography. “Stefan Sagmeister.” (11) Randy Kennedy. “How That Sausage of Happiness is Made.” Last modified April 3, 2012. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/04/arts/design/stefan-sagmeisters-happy-show-at-institute-of-contemporary-art.html?_r=1. The New York Times. “Art & Design.”
IMAGE ACCREDITATION
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