Pair Artist/Designer Statements
In this short, in-class, exercise, you will get in a group of 2 and write an artist statement for your partner. An artist/designer statement can take many approaches, but essentially it is a short description of your experience, interests, and working methods.
Get into pairs, then take a short break to read:
- How to write an artist statement by Sarah Hotchkiss
After you’ve both read the essay, reunite with your partner and conduct a short interview with them in order to answer the "what, why, and (possibly) how" they practice. In your discussion, make sure to consider your partner's audience, and tailor their statement accordingly. Your statement can be a few sentences, or one to two paragraphs.
Share the statement you wrote for your partner and workshop it with them. We'll come back together near the end of class, and have everyone re-introduce their partner by reading the artist/designer statement you have written.
Once you have finished writing your partner's artist statement, add it to the Class Google Doc.
Some examples of artist/designer statements and their strategies...
Biographical / Factual:
Choi Sulki and Choi Sung Min are graphic designers working around Seoul, South Korea. They met at Yale University where they both earned their MFA degrees. After working as researchers at the Jan van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, they returned to Korea in 2005 to start their own practice. Since then, they have created graphic identities, promotional materials, publications and websites for many cultural institutions and individuals. From 2010 until 2013, they worked as graphic designers of the BMW Guggenheim Lab, an ambitious project jointly initiated by the Guggenheim Foundation and BMW, for which they designed an interactive identity system driven by online public participation.
Unique working attitude, methods, and value proposition:
Our generative passion for the arts, education, technology and design is reflected in our clients. Unique among firms our size, we combine leading-edge visual design with the capability to undertake complicated projects – and transform institutions. Our designers and developers work tightly together and are inspired by one another.
Our approach to creativity and context embraces flexibility, agility, and evolution as both design and strategic values.
Defining in the negative / Humorous:
At Min Gu-Hong Manufacturing, we do not ridicule family management.
Guhong Min Manufacturing does not measure the literary quality of accident reports with Wolfram Alpha.
Guhong Min Manufacturing does not imply a motto or date of birth in the email ID.
Mission Statement:
On this first day of 2020, we are happy to announce CSS—a new, New York-based consultancy run by Laura Coombs, Laurel Schwulst, and Mindy Seu.
We are three friends who met through our work in design and education. Even though we think of ourselves as quite different, we have wanted to work together for a long time now … Somehow, the first day of this special new year felt like the right time to tell you … 2020—the year we all have perfect vision and feel clearly, putting our complementary strengths together …
Although our name CSS may suggest otherwise (“cascading style sheets”), we are not a design studio. Instead, we want to utilize our professional and personal experiences to strategize creative projects via research, reflection, and direction … We are interested in working with local and distant individuals, companies, and institutions (and others that fall outside of these categories!) on projects such as identities, publications, and environments (offline and on) … We have some other exciting announcements on the horizon …
Laura, Laurel, Mindy