We contributed the installation ‘The Office of Now’ to the major travelling exhibition ‘Graphic Design: Now in Production’ during its residency at the RISD Museum. The installation transplanted the Museum’s in-house graphic design office from its permanent location in the Museum’s basement into the gallery space. In its new location, the office continued to function as it did in its old, with graphic designers Derek Schusterbauer and Brendan Campbell working with museum staff to produce visual materials to aid in the promotion and interpretation of the museum.
Exhibitions of graphic design are inherently problematic because they isolate the artifacts of graphic design from the commercial and functional context in which, and for which, they
are produced. ‘The Office of Now’ sought to re-introduces some of this context into the exhibition by exposing, through its quotidian operations, the ways in which graphic design functions differently from fine art in its production, distribution, and modes of authorship.
Derek Schusterbauer and Brendan Campbell at work in the installation.
