Current Exhibit

Matthew Carter's Top Ten (minus one)

September 13, 2019 through February 29, 2020

What catches the eye of this MacArthur Award-winning type designer when he's not designing type? Let's not kid ourselves: Matthew Carter is always looking at letters. But he does not live by letters alone—and you might be surprised by what’s found its way to his list of favorite things. With just nine items we can begin to understand what makes Matthew Carter not just a well-rounded type designer, but a well-rounded person. Learn more »

Forthcoming Exhibits

Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Envelopes Addressed and Mailed by Type Designers and Notable Graphic Designers

Mid-2020 (Maybe)

Addressing an envelope is a design problem that was once confronted daily. It couldn’t have been a more mundane task.We've gathered (and are gathering) envelopes addressed and mailed by some of the masters of modern type- and graphic design to show how the greats approached this most ephemeral design problem. Learn more »

Past Exhibits

The Bauhaus and Herbert Bayer and Banknotes

February 15 through March 16, 2019

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus in Germany, we've assembled a modest showing of banknotes designed by Herbert Bayer. While it's not hard to find pictures of these banknotes on the Internet, one rarely gets to see them in real life. Learn more »

Dick Bruna and Black Bears and Japanese Matchboxes

December 7, 2018 through September 7, 2019

While Dick Bruna was writing and illustrating his early books for children, he was also designing book covers for mysteries and detective novels. On the other side of the world, Japanese artists and designers were designing matchbox labels. What do Dick Bruna's covers have to do with Japanese matchboxes? This exhibition finally answers that question. Learn more »

Ivan Chermayeff: Mostly Early Covers

May 5 through December 1, 2018

It’s not difficult to find examples of book covers by Ivan Chermayeff (1932–2017), but when displayed alongside his firm’s intimately familiar logos for Mobil, Showtime, MoMA, and Chase, they tend to get lost. Ivan Chermayeff: Mostly Early Covers is an opportunity to focus on forty-one of Chermayeff’s less-celebrated designs without being overwhelmed by the iconic work for which he is so well known. Learn more »

Previous Stamp-Designers-of-the-Month

Lance Wyman

November 1 through November 30, 2019

Lance Wyman created commemorative postage stamps for some of the most historically significant events of the late twentieth century: Olympiads, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the 1970 World Cup, the first manned landing on the moon, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations. Learn more »

Rosmarie Tissi

July 19 through August 31, 2019

Rosmarie Tissi is a Swiss designer—but not a typical Swiss designer. Born in 1937, her work is as rational and orderly as that of her compatriots—but is typically more human and relaxed, more colorful and round. Her two postage stamps are perfect specimens of this contrast. Learn more »

Erik Spiekermann

May 3 through June 1, 2019

Erik Spiekermann turns 72 on May 30—so we've assembled a modest showing of Dutch postage stamps by this award-winning German designer. How did a German come to design Dutch stamps? And isn't it unusual that more than one subject (in this case, more than one sport) would be featured on a single stamp? Learn more »

Hermann Zapf

March 29 through April 27, 2019

Hermann Zapf may have been the greatest type designer of the twentieth century, but he considered himself to be, primarily, a book designer. So, he was pretty good at his secondary pursuits. But what about tertiary pursuits such as designing postage stamps? Learn more »