AIGA CO presents Jennifer Morla on Wednesday, November 4, 2009
“Often times they say that design is seductive propaganda, but it’s not always trying to pull the wool over somebody’s eyes. Design has to excite, but it also has to inform in a way that engages. I try to involve the audience in the design process, whether they know it or not.” — Jennifer Morla
Designers often underestimate the impact they have on the world at large, and how their visual vocabulary is influenced by political, social, and cultural events. Join AIGA CO on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, when Jennifer Morla will present 33 designisms: a manifesto that questions what designers do, why they do it, and how to get it done. Morla, President and Creative Director of Morla Design in San Francisco, will also introduce case studies that reinforce pragmatic applications of these truisms.
Morla has lived and worked in San Francisco since 1978. Morla’s early designs for Levi Strauss & Co. (where she famously collaborated with Andy Warhol and other artists on a memorably artful campaign for classic 501 jeans) helped provide the momentum for the launch of her own design firm, Morla Design, back in 1984. Over the years, her work has ranged from brightly colored collages to the austere presentation of nothing but dense type. Her creations move between what we might think of as art (she is an accomplished painter) and commercial work.
In 2006, Morla accepted an offer from Design Within Reach to serve as Chief Creative/Marketing Officer where she was responsible for all design including catalogs, advertising, and web. For her accomplishments, the company was awarded the prestigious AIGA Corporate Leadership Medal for the successful interaction between aesthetics and business pragmatics. She returned full time to Morla Design in 2009, where she continues to pair wit and elegance on everything from branding to textiles.
Morla Design’s work is part of the permanent collections of the Denver Art Museum, SFMOMA, the Smithsonian Museum, MoMA, and the Library of Congress. She has been honored with solo design exhibitions at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and DDD Gallery in Japan. Morla lectures internationally, teaches at California College of the Arts, and is an elected member of Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI), an international design organization based in Zurich. Ms. Morla served on the National Board of Directors of AIGA.
Difficult to define and always exploring new territory, Jennifer Morla continues to astound us with her ability to use graphic design to re-present our reality to us.
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Note: Ticket prices increase by $5 at the door.