As a designer, participating in exhibitions does not necessarily feel like quite the right fit for much of the work we do, since we tend to create highly functional or ephemeral work for a particular context that is not particularly precious, unlike the work more typically found in galleries. But exhibitions are the tradition in art, where many design programs are housed. And the occasional exhibition of faculty work is a long-standing tradition.
I ended up designed something specifically for such display recently: after some discussion among the faculty about the controversial handling by the University of the discovery of human remains—likely of enslaved individuals—during a construction project on campus, I decided that the thorough and thoughtful 120+ page report on the topic put together in 2019 by five diligent faculty deserved some design and typographic love.
So for our 2020 School of Art faculty exhibition, All Together Now, I submitting two giant 24 x 100-inch sheets full of typeset report text with emphasis on certain key phrases and terms, Avoiding a spectacle: Report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Baldwin Hall to the Franklin College Faculty Senate. (“Avoiding a spectacle” was a term used multiple times in the report, referring to the University’s aims in dealing with particular matters related to the reburial.)
