We thought we’d try to get inside the minds of some of our upcoming Insights design lecture speakers, you know, dig a little deeper. Invade their personal space. So here is Mr. Draplin answering some of life’s most—and possibly least—important questions: Describe a recent dream in 15 words or less. I usually don’t remember my dreams, and that sucks. That’s nine words. Damn. What a bummer. Sometimes I…

See below for this year’s lineup. In the coming weeks we’ll be posting interviews with the speakers. Although he makes his home in Portland, Oregon, Aaron Draplin is more a product of being born, raised, and educated in the Midwest. A native of Detroit, he studied graphic design at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design before heading west to work as art director of Snowboarder magazine. He…

Using the exhibitionGraphic Design: Now in Production as its subject, the Walker Art Center created a seminar course for graphic design majors from the College of Visual Arts in St. Paul, the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, and the University of Minnesota’s College of Design to investigate the themes and ideas of the show. The installation explores the ways that graphic design is being…

Above: image research for the catalogue From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America (2010) From Here to There: Alec Soth’s America is the first exhibition catalogue to feature the full spectrum of the work of Alec Soth, one of the most interesting voices in contemporary photography, whose compelling images of everyday America form powerful narrative vignettes. Featuring more than 100 of the artist’s…

This is part 6 of an ongoing survey. See part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here, part 4 here and part 5 here. As a design candidate in the MCAD MFA program I was asked to write an “artist statement” which, as a designer, I found inherently problematic. In response I contacted designers whose work inspired and influenced me in some way, asking: Is there such a thing as a “designer statement,” and if so…

“Back when Paul Rand wrote, “There is no such thing as bad content, only bad form,” I remember being intensely annoyed. I took it as an abdication of a designer’s responsibility to meaning. Over time, I have come to read it differently: he was not defending hate speech or schlock or banality; he meant that the designer’s purview is to shape, not to write. But that shaping itself was a profoundly…

Before there was Design Within Reach — or Room & Board or Crate and Barrel or West Elm or CB2 or Hive or Unica Home or our own Walker Shop, for that matter — there was Useful Gifts. From 1946 to 1960, these annual exhibitions in the Walker’s Everyday Art Gallery showcased the fruits of midcentury modern design: “simple, well designed objects for everyday use that some day may counteract the present…

This is part 5 of an ongoing survey. See part 1 here, part 2 here, part 3 here and part 4 here. As a design candidate in the MCAD MFA program I was asked to write an “artist statement” which, as a designer, I found inherently problematic. In response I contacted designers whose work inspired and influenced me in some way, asking: Is there such a thing as a “designer statement,” and if so, how would you…

Metahaven (the designers behind the Facestate installation in the exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production) has created a series of WikiLeaks-inspired products to raise funds for the whistleblower group. Scarves, mugs, and t-shirts are currently on display at the Museum of the Image in Breda, The Netherlands, and is available on eBay for purchase/sniping. Installation of Wikileaks Fundraiser…