New York, NY
Completion target 2020
Associate, Russell Design

Exterior and interior identification, wayfinding and code-required sign design and documentation, integral to full architectural drawing submissions, including bid & addendum sets and bulletins. The choice of low iron, surface etched, low lustre glass for interior signs meets both ADA and code requirements, and sets a neutral presence in the context of contemporary architecture and interior design. Turkevi Center is a 32-story building for the Republic of Turkey’s consulate and permanent mission to the UN, situated at the corner of First Avenue and 46th Street, providing office and special function spaces on the lower levels, along with upper floor luxury apartments for officials, dignitaries and special guests. Architect: Perkins Eastman Architects.

New York, NY
Opening 2020
Associate, Russell Design

Design of interior signage program along with documentation integrated into architectural set necessary for NYC DOB filings, with bulletins following. 106 West 56th is a 26-story, 90,000sf boutique luxury office building in the heart of Billionaire’s Row. Tenants will fit out their floors when leased; a material specification of low iron, surface etched, low lustre glass allowed for a uniformly high level of initial signage finish. After GC award, we determined that a value engineered material specification of P95 translucent acrylic would lead to a significant cost savings on upper floors, and samples were approved by the developer. The lobby and lower level common area signs were designed to complement permanent interior finishes and fixtures, relying on architectural bronze and blackened metal. Architect: Perkins Eastman Architects. Developer: Savanna.

Piscataway, NJ
Opened Summer 2019
Associate, Russell Design

Created environmental graphic design program, from concept to final design development, through bid/award and fabrication oversight. Working with the architects and athletic director, who wanted to distinguish their program from typical Big 10 collegiate athletics graphics, spaces were defined as public (most minimal), transitional (discreetly branded) and private (most densely graphic). Classical, sequential, black & white images of contemporary athletes, at monumental scale, timelessly capture the dexterity and power of the human form, and are combined with established Rutgers brand assets. The new APC is home to training facilities, locker rooms, and offices for men’s and women’s basketball, wrestling, and gymnastics programs, along with sports medical care and a nutrition center for the full student athletics body. Architect: Perkins Eastman Architects.

Flushing, NY
Completed 2017
Associate, Russell Design

Wayfinding design for interior and parking garage, bid/award/fabrication/installation oversight. SkyView is a 560,000sf multi-level mall situated at one of the busiest intersections in the NYC metropolitan area. Double height big box stores are situated across the parking garage from three levels of interior retail that have pedestrian entrances on half levels above and below shopping corridors. After extensive photo documentation, flow observation, and walk-throughs with operations staff, the design team determined that the program must address: A) the disconnect between pedestrian entrances and shopping levels; B) the separation of interior retail and big box stores; C) the existing conglomeration of conflicting wayfinding and brand signage messaging; and D) the almost total lack of vehicular signage in the six story garage. Interior directories clarified retail tenant locations and their relationship to the garage that divides them. Directionals were designed with succinct messaging and uniform material, color and typography treatment. Color-coded garage level and row identification were clearly identified, and vehicular directionals were placed at every decision point to guide drivers from floor to floor (non-uniform ramp-conditions) and to distinguish paths to the garage’s two exit points. Client: The Related Companies and ShopCore Properties

New York, NY
Opened Summer 2016
Associate, Russell Design

Designed environmental, wayfinding and code required trilingual sign program (English, Mandarin, Spanish); developed bid set and oversaw fabrication and installation. Based on brand style guidelines, the program relied on spare typography, white space and playful iconography. Materials specified were metallic painted, satin finish acrylic substrates as a value engineered alternative to the stainless steel used for interior hardware and details. The expansion space is five stories and 80,000sf of new classrooms which comprise The Early Learning Center and the upper school's Co.LAB Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics (STEAM) program. Design and Interior Architect: Eleven of Eleven Architects. Executive Architect: Murdock Solon Architects.

New York, NY
Opened Summer 2016
Associate, Russell Design

Developed variations for environmental graphics approach using established brand assets as a basis, considering both audience and architectural cues. Refined design development for final review, created bid set documentation, and provided production and installation oversight. EHEC is a six-floor, 9,000sf home for the East Harlem Tutorial Program (EHTP) and East Harlem Scholars Academies (EHSA), serving more than 1,000 full-time K-8 students and after school college-bound high schoolers. Architect: Perkins Eastman Architects.

Fairfax, VA
Opened June, 2015
Senior Graphic Designer, ALCHEMYstudio

Exhibition identity, interpretive and environmental graphic design, and donor recognition design, continuing through production and installation. Created initial styleguides and developed graphics for galleries of interactive exhibits based on STEM learning for Northern Virginia area children and families. Worked closely with development staff to create donor wall based on the periodic table of elements. CSC | LAB is an active showcase for a future site at larger scale to serve broader needs of the region. Exhibit Designer: Dan Wodarcyk.

Milan, Italy
Opened May, 2015
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Interpretive and environmental graphic design for pavilion exhibitions in close collaboration with 3D designers and media developers. Developed exhibition graphics approach, researched photography, and developed initial treatments for select media pieces. Produced production files for output, fabrication and integration by Italian partners.

EXPO Milano 2015, running from May 1 to October 31 2015, is a global showcase with more than 140 participating countries offering their approaches to the theme, "Feeding the Planet: Energy for Life." The USA Pavilion's exhibitions introduce visitors to Americans working at the vanguard of the food system. Architect: Biber Architects.

New York, NY
Opened 2014
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Interpretive and environmental graphic design for the museum included style guide development, materials research and specifications, production design, quality assurance and installation consultancy, beginning in the schematic design phase in 2007, through design development, bidding, production, construction and post-opening phases through the summer of 2014. Designed more than 300 individual graphics, from object IDs to interpretive panels, large scale images, and environmental treatments. Designed and reviewed the portrait array for the Memorial Exhibition, comprised of images and names for the 2983 people killed in the World Trade Center attacks.

Thinc Design was the lead exhibition designer for the 120,000-square-foot memorial museum on the site of the former World Trade Center, in collaboration with Local Projects, LLC. Architects: Snohetta and Davis Brody Bond.

Winner of AAM's Excellence in Exhibition Competition for the Interstitial Area Installations. Judges praised the installations as an incredible example of the role exhibitions play in processing information by the visitor,  a model of how collections can be used to deal with emotions, and a technologically impressive achievement in the service and use of an urban archaeological site.

9/11 Museum, New York, NY
Opened 2014
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Exhibition design and interpretive graphics for the South Tower Gallery's inaugural exhibition, Witness at Ground Zero: Photographs by Stephane Sednaoui. Located within the footprint of the former WTC South Tower, the 2000-square-foot gallery presents 40 images taken by French photographer and video director Stephane Sednaoui between September 12 and 16, 2001, when he volunteered in the rescue efforts at Ground Zero.

Hung in chronological clusters, combined imagery immerses viewers in both the destruction and humanity of the site's changing conditions immediately following the 9/11 attack. After final selection and elevations, Sednaoui's trusted printer in Paris sent prints to the US exhibition fabricator, who back-mounted them to acrylic, fabricated float mounts and installed the gallery.

New York, NY
Opened 2009
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Graphic design and production design for the 2,500-square-foot visitor area, which included both exhibit and retail spaces. Exhibition spaces provided an overview of the development and vision for the emerging site, combining museum, memorial, transportation hub and signature towers. A large-scale timeline of events beginning on 9/11 and concluding in the present (at that time) spanned the exhibition and retail spaces.

Environmental graphics at the Preview Site were the first application of Landor Associates' new identity guidelines for the museum, and special consideration and review were required by the NYC Landmarks Preservation Commission for a contemporary approach to the facade. Design Director: Steven Shaw.

Brooklyn, NY
Opened 2012
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Graphic identity and interpretive graphic style guidelines for the new Visitor Center and outdoor interpretive graphics in the surrounding landscape. Refining the Garden's existing identity and graphics guidelines, developed quiet, spare visuals on the vertical plane that complement an open, light-filled space using a tinted palette that bridges the garden outdoors and interior architectural finishes. On the horizontal planes are the more dense graphics, not so visible at long, architectural sightlines, but functional at close reach. Architects: Weiss/Manfredi. Design Director: Steven Shaw.

Union, TN
Opened 2013
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Interpretive and environmental graphic design for a 100,000-square-foot education and entertainment complex situated on a 50-acre interpretive site. Developed graphics style guide for galleries of space science, alternative energy, military history, and transportation.

Researched, developed and wrote interpretive program for the Transportation gallery, which includes 20 historically significant vehicles spanning the years 1910 to the present. Image research and graphics development and production completed the gallery.

South Street Seaport Museum, New York, NY
September 2009 to January 2010
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Graphic design for the exhibition New Amsterdam: The Island at the Center of the World, a collaboration between the Nationaal Archief and the South Street Seaport Museum in New York coinciding with the 400th anniversary of Dutch settlement. Developed the interpretive graphics style guidelines and art directed the production design, handled by a fellow Thinc staff designer.

Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, IN
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design
Opened 2014

Graphic design style guide for the revolutionary new Simon Skjodt International Orangutan Center, elements of which enable visitors to interact one-to-one with the apes. Interpretive and environmental graphics guidelines were developed under the umbrella of the zoo's recent rebranding, an external effort that unifies the look and feel of areas of the zoo that developed  independently over decades. Visual elements of the graphics for the Orangutan Center were derived from the native environments of the Orangs in Borneo and Sumatra. The zoo's in-house graphic designer completed production using Thinc's style guide.

Long Beach, CA
Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design

Graphic design and production for an energy exhibit sponsored by Shell that featured state-of-the-art technology displays and thought-provoking activities. Located in a 1,200-square-foot temporary pavilion open to attendees of the 2009 Technology, Entertainment, and Design conference over the span of a week. The graphic identity was designed to reflect a green, contemporary corporate approach to showcase new energy-efficient products, with Shell as key stakeholder, but without using Shell's identity standards.

Senior Graphic Designer, Thinc Design
Launched 2010

Written by museum professionals for museum professionals, Curator: The Museum Journal provides a forum for exploration and debate of the latest issues, practices, and policies in museum administration, research, exhibition development, visitor studies, conservation, education, collection management and other subjects of current concern to the community. A magazine that has served museum professionals and academics for decades, by 2010 the layout was severely dated, largely laid out by the printer, and needed an update to appeal to an increasingly younger audience.

Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Staff Graphic Designer, LSC
Opened 2007

Development, identity, environmental/interpretive graphics and screen design for 7000-sq. ft. gallery, presenting human communication from a global perspective. Through hands-on interactives and multimedia exhibits, guests explore the physiology of communication, examine the evolution of written language and experiment with the science of contemporary telecommunications. LSC reopened in 2007 after a 22-month hiatus for its $109 million expansion and complete renewal.

Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Staff Graphic Designer, LSC
Opened 2008

Exhibit ID, interpretive graphic design, and graphic design production for an exhibit of select objects from Gadgetoff 2007, an annual invitation-only event showcasing technical and artistic innovations by inventors, entrepreneurs, educators, artists, and creators. GYGO presented innovative new objects in the context of the science and people behind them and their breakthrough moments. Developed grunge graphics with active accent elements and saturated color to speak to LSC's young audience.

Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Staff Graphic Designer, LSC
Opened 2008

Exhibit ID, interpretive graphic design, and graphic design production for an exhibit that focused on the upcoming presidential election through interactives that dealt with candidates' positions on science education, energy, environmental, and current science issues. A red, white, and blue palette, generous white space, continuous tone illustrations, and woodblock-style type set the visual tone, combined with short, digestible text blocks and infographics.

Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, NJ
Staff Graphic Designer, LSC

Marketing and collateral graphics at the science center included support materials for exhibitions, gala invitations and brochures, and a capital campaign identity and program that allowed the development staff to create interest among funders. From concepts to production files to press and binding checks, it was a hands-on process with both internal and external stakeholders.

New Jersey's largest museum, it has collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Africa, the Americas, and the ancient world.
 
In addition to general gallery updates and upkeep as a staff designer from 1995 to 1998, featured exhibits included:

Off Limits: Rutgers University and the Avant-Garde, 1957-1963
Identity and interpretive graphics for 6000 sq. ft. contemporary art exhibition featuring installations and performances by George Brecht, Geoffrey Hendricks, Allan Kaprow, Roy Lichtenstein, Lucas Samaras, George Segal, Robert Watts and Robert Whitman. The exhibition connected the initiation of major trends such as Happenings, Pop Art, and Fluxus to the faculty at Rutgers University beginning in the late 1950s. Opened 1999, curator: Joseph Jacobs.

Rodin: Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection
Identity, interpretive graphics, installation and lighting for 4000 sq. ft. exhibition of large scale bronzes by Auguste Rodin. The opening wall featured a vintage photographic print by Edward Steichen. Opened 1999, curator: Joseph Jacobs.

Wrapped in Pride: Ghanaian Kente and African American Identity
Exhibition design and identity for 7000 sq. ft. traveling show of Kente cloth, artifacts, photography and video from Ghana. The exhibition was organized into four sections: an introducton with photo groupings of key locales; the process and materials of weaving; a survey gallery of Kente exploring motifs; social history, political and community interpretation. Organized with the Fowler Museum of Cultural History, UCLA. Opened 1998, curator: Doran Ross.

Artisans of Ancient Rome
Exhibition design, mountmaking, identity, interpretive graphics, installation and lighting for 2500 sq. ft. exhibition of classical Roman objects, organized by discipline: glass, stone, metal and ceramics. Special considerations included support and rigging for stone objects, humidity controlled cases to prevent bronze disease, and mountmaking for glass objects. Loan objects from the Metropolitan Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Opened 1997, curator: Dr. Susan Auth.

As a sculpture undergrad (and later) I was in the tutelage of a metal sculptor and had full run of his studio, first in what was the Meat Packing district and in the early years of Chelsea when Gansevoort became trendy and real estate prices rose. He insisted on lots of torch work–silver soldering, brazing, welding, cutting–and some years later I bought myself a proper setup to work on furniture prototypes.

My first project was a pair of step stools, made from 1/2" square steel tube frame/leg assembly with a 1/2" birch deck. A local fabricator nickel-plated the metal, and I routed 1/8" slots in the decks for grip before clear-coating.

With CNC processes becoming more accessible these days, I took the challenge of solving a stacking stool problem, as most of the museum projects we've worked on need them and there are very few choices occupying a middle market that is both affordable and durable. After I worked out the design in front and side elevations, one of the 3D designers was kind enough to build the renderings seen here.

Currently I've sourced a metal fabricator and necessary hardware and next step is to find a sympathetic wood shop that can contour cut the seats.

© 2015 Greg Blackburn. All rights reserved.

Collage and assemblage are near and dear, from Kurt Schwitters to Richard Hamilton to cut-and-paste xeroxed punk fliers, transitioning into digital graphics. Influenced by fine art, and coming of age in the eighties, vintage flea market magazines, college library photocopiers, and glue sticks formed the basis of what still passes for fun now that source material is online, originals are readily available on eBay, and designers are, as ever, embracing physical media.

I still dart into the college library at reunions and snap pics within archived magazine collections. And buy vintage originals online I remember as a kid. And remember a time when Backdate Magazines, on 40th Street behind the Port Authority bus terminal, possibly one of the scuzziest blocks ever, was lunchtime destination to snag vintage Progressive Architecture and Holiday magazines from the fifties.

Presented are a loose collection of digitized ephemera, early cut and paste, later dalliances, trifling asides, casual throwaways, serious distractions, etc, etc.

© 2015 Greg Blackburn. All rights reserved.