SpeakerEddie Opara studied graphic design at the London College of Printing and Yale University, where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and Imaginary Forces and worked as an art director at 2x4 before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram’s New York office as partner in 2010.
A multifaceted designer, Opara’s work encompasses strategy, design and technology. His projects have included the design of interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, brand identity, publications, packaging, and environments, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media.
His clients have included the Menil Foundation, the Studio Museum in Harlem, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Queens Museum of Art, the Mori Art Museum, JWT, Vitra, Prada, St. Regis Hotels, the Corcoran Group, Morgan Stanley, New York University, UCLA, Grimshaw Architects, (ARO) Architecture Research Office, Harry N. Abrams and Princeton Architectural Press. At Map he developed the MiG, a content management system that allows clients to manage and publish their own content online.
Opara has won numerous awards including a Gold Cube from the Art Directors Club and honours from the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) and I.D. magazine. His work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art and has appeared in publications such as Archis, Surface, Graphis and I.D.
Opara is a visiting critic at the Yale School of Art and teaches narrative design at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design, the Columbia University School of Architecture and the Yale University School of Art. He is a member of the Ailliance Graphique Internationale, on the board of the New York Chapter of AIGA (the professional association for design), and was recently featured in Ebony magazine’s Power 100 Black American list for the December 2011 / January 2012 issue.