Pentagram partner Abbott Miller’s portfolio includes a myriad of award-winning designs, from identities and environmental graphics to book covers and digital media. Now, the artist and designer surveys his work in a new exhibition, Abbott Miller: Design and Content.
The solo exhibition is based on Miller’s recently published monograph, Abbott Miller: Design and Content (Princeton Architectural Press), which argues that designers inhabit a critical space between form and content. The exhibition references this idea and sees Miller positioning himself as performer and interpreter, using words and images to dramatically stage content.
The exhibition showcases a selection of identities, environmental graphics, books, magazines, products and digital media designed throughout Miller’s career. More recent projects on show include Miller’s celebration of Formica Laminate’s 100th anniversary with the design of four new graphic patterns as well as his DOT DOT DOT iPad app that invites viewers into the virtual world of music, dance and choreography.
Vertical banners are used in the gallery space to single out each individual discipline and the projects that fall under them. Pages of books and screenshots from apps are displayed in sequence to create a cinematic sense of motion and transition. Books and publication are scattered around the gallery, inviting visitors to page through or read them.
The final touch for the exhibition is a number of short phrases from Miller’s monograph threaded throughout the exhibition, coherently tying everything together.
Abbott Miller: Design and Content is on display at the Albin O. Kuhn Gallery at the University of Maryland, Baltimore until 30 June 2015.
