What makes the work of Minneapolis-based VJAA’s architects so receptive for recognition? We can can safely rule out a few of the more obvious possibilities: they do not project the celebrity aura of the “starchitect,” nor do they dutifully reproduce a particularly recognizable style. In other words, despite all the awards, they do not intentionally cultivate a mediatized persona about their practice.

“We are interested in the ways in which Facebook and government, Facebook and employers, Facebook and friends, Facebook and enemies constitute a power arrangement, and the way in which this constellation might influence politics, currency, and the social contract.” So says Metahaven of Facestate, their installation in the Walker’s design show.

Technology did not render the poster obsolete as a means of communication. Instead, it expanded the tools, methods, and systems of production and distribution, freeing the poster from its typical burden of representation while sentencing it to a different kind of future.

British designer Anthony Burrill is known for using older technology, namely Victorian wood type, to create posters bearing upbeat, quirky mantras like “Work Hard and Be Kind to People” and “Clear Your Head.” But he’s well aware how social media is changing design—and propelling his ideas around the globe.

Born in the offices of Mad Men–era ad execs, modern-day branding’s long strange trip into the American psyche has run some five decades from iconic corporate marks for the likes of IBM and UPS to MTV’s ever-changing logo, military heraldry, black metal graphics and beyond.