Context of Practice: OUGD601 - RESEARCH - The Skirball Center Identity

DESIGNED BY MICHAEL BIERUT (PENTAGRAM):

- The Skirball Center for Performing Arts at New York University (a cultural centre which hosts dance, theatre, music, film and performance art).

- The identity was inspired by the venue's senior director who envisioned the centre "as a place where uptown meets downtown" which makes the most of New York University's global connections. Working towards this envision, Bierut and his team wanted to reflect the 'rich graphic heritage' of downtown New York, and did so through the visualisation of gig posters, zines and handmade flyers in order 'to evoke the days when Washington Square was the providing ground for a revolutionary American avant-garde".
- Pentagram explains that the identity's design direction "reflects the intellectual counterculture traditions in the historically Bohemian Village".

- The identity has also been used consistently throughout the New York University campus in some of their branding and printed media, such as the season brochure which was printed on newsprint in a zine-like style.

IMAGE ANALYSIS:

The new identity produced for The Skirball Center was designed with handmade material in mind, such as hand-printed gig-posters and zines, reflecting the downtown areas of New York. Despite this, the identity seems as though it has been produced mainly through digital means, replicating such handmade visuals through the use of a computer. It seems strange that this should be done digitally, however perhaps this was done in order to put a more contemporary twist on the designs to not only reflect the American avant-garde, but also the modernity of the New York University.

However, this identity has also been used within their printed material, this time more physically reflecting on the handmade through their design production in that they printed the University's seasonal brochures on newsprint in a zine-like style.