Text Me: How We Live In Language
September 17, 2017 —February 4, 2018
The individual component of language — text — is the prime vehicle used to express the experiences of our existence, from minor moments of daily life to the grand nature of the human condition. Our ancestors, even dating back as far as cavemen, have been using symbols to document and record their experiences.
Today, the visualization of our personal stories is an integral and essential part of nearly every moment of life, and we use text in all of its forms to define reality, emotions and even time itself. We are now living in a world where the condition of our visual communication reflects the condition of our culture.
The artists and designers represented within Text Me: How We Live in Language combined narrative text with two- and three-dimensional objects to augment and enhance the experience of expression. Their work was intimate and interpretive; the common denominator was the application of language as a vehicle for observing, assessing, and interpreting the world around us.
Conceived and curated by designer, podcaster, and brand strategist Debbie Millman, this exhibition was an attempt to organize, express, translate and reflect both how we live in language and how language now defines our lives.
Curated by Debbie Millman
About the Curator
Named “one of the most influential designers working today” by Graphic Design USA, Debbie Millman is also an author, educator, brand strategist and host of the podcast Design Matters. As the founder and host of Design Matters, the first and longest running podcast about design, Millman has interviewed more than 300 design luminaries and cultural commentators, including Massimo Vignelli, Milton Glaser, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink, Barbara Kruger, Seth Godin and more. In the 12 years since its inception, the show has garnered over five million downloads per year, a Cooper Hewitt National Design Award and iTunes designated it one of the best podcasts of 2015.
Debbie’s written and visual essays have appeared in publications such as The New York Times, New York Magazine, Print Magazine, Design Observer and Fast Company. She is the author of two books of illustrated essays: Look Both Ways and Self-Portrait As Your Traitor; the later of which has been awarded a Gold Mobius, a Print Typography Award, and a medal from the Art Directors Club.
Her artwork has been exhibited at the Boston Biennale, Chicago Design Museum, Anderson University, School of Visual Arts, Long Island University, The Wolfsonion Museum and the Czong Institute for Contemporary Art. She has been artist-in-residence at Cranbrook University, Old Dominion University and Notre Dame University, and has conducted visual storytelling workshops at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, the University of Utah, Hartford University, Albuquerque Academy, the High School of Art and Design and the Type Directors Club in New York. She has designed campaign buttons for Hillary Clinton, wrapping paper and beach towels for One Kings Lane, greeting cards for Mohawk, MOO and Card-To-Art, playing cards for DeckStarter, notebooks for Shutterstock and Baron Fig, and T-shirts for Within The Fold.
Debbie is the author of six books, including two collections of interviews that have extended the ethos and editorial vision of Design Matters to the printed page: How to Think Like a Great Graphic Designer and Brand Thinking and Other Noble Pursuits. Both books have been published in over 10 languages. In 2009 Debbie co-founded with Steven Heller the world’s first graduate program in branding at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Now in its seventh year, the program has achieved international acclaim. The inaugural class wrote and designed the Rockport book Brand Bible: The Complete Guide to Building, Designing and Sustaining Brands, in 2013 the students created branding for the Museum of Modern Art’s retail program, Destination: New York, the class of 2015 worked to reposition a Kappa Middle School in Harlem, the class of 2016 rebranded Mariska Hargitay’s Joyful Heart Foundation and the class of 2017 redesigned the identity of the legendary Performance Space 122.
Debbie was the President of the design group at Sterling Brands for twenty years, where she worked with over 200 of the world’s largest brands, including the redesign of Burger King, merchandising for Star Wars and the positioning and branding of the No More movement. She is also President Emeritus of AIGA, one of five women to hold the position in the organization’s 100-year history and a past board member and treasurer of the New York Chapter. She is a frequent speaker on design and branding and has moderated Design Yatra in India, presented keynote lectures at Rotman School of Management, Princeton University, Michigan Modern, the Hong Kong Design Association, the Melbourne Writers Festival, the National Museum of Serbia, Design Thinkers in Toronto, the Festival of Art and Design in Barcelona, Webstock in New Zealand, QVED in Munich, the ING Conference in Dubai, TypoBerlin, the By Design Conference in Slovakia, and many more.
She has been a juror for competitions including Cannes Lions, The Clio’s, The Art Directors Club, The Type Directors Club, Fast Company, HOW Magazine, Print Magazine, ID Magazine, Society of Publication Directors, AIGA, The Dieline, and more.
Currently, Debbie is the Editorial and Creative Director of Print Magazine, the oldest magazine about design in the United States.
She is a Native New Yorker.