Creating exhibitions based mostly on a designer’s workspace has develop into a formidable strategy to body their persona. How they labored is commonly mirrored in how they lived.
The present exhibition dedicated to Clive Piercy is an intimate portal into his life and vividly reveals his ardour for graphic and typographic expression.
Piercy moved to Los Angeles from the U.Ok. in 1988 and co-founded the design agency Ph.D with Michael Hodgson. In 2007, he based Air-Conditioned and continued to work with a roster of West Coast manufacturers together with Nike, Levi’s, Chronicle Books and Roxy/Quicksilver. Piercy was additionally a inventive director and longtime educator at ArtCenter School of Design. His influence derived from a mix of wit, humor and formal virtuosity.
He was California by and thru. In 2017, he handed away, abandoning a various array of labor. His legacy lives on and might be seen within the restaurant aesthetics of Bestia, Father’s Workplace and Belcampo.
Whats up, LA: Clive Piercy – Contained in the Thoughts of a Designer, now on view by June 24 at ArtCenter, is co-curated by Ann Subject. In her phrases, “Clive spoke by his work, he knew easy methods to make issues actually resonate, and I believe his spirit is on this.” I’ve requested Subject to talk to the legacy he left behind.
What triggered this exhibit of Clive Piercy’s work?
I believe it says loads about Clive and loads about America that he was acknowledged as a Fellow by the AIGA. When Clive died in 2017, I decided that there ought to be an exhibition about him and his work. The exhibition wanted to point out who he was and the way he wove the issues he liked into his design philosophy. I wished the exhibition to be an perception into the individual and never his design course of precisely, as a result of it was extra complicated than that. I wished college students and fellow designers to witness the complexity but see how this coalesced into one thing decisive and authentic (which may very well be utilized to shopper tasks and his self-initiated design tasks).
How did Clive distinguish himself, a Brit, from different designers in his American orbit?
In America, Clive stood out as a result of he was schooled within the European custom. However it didn’t finish there. He was extremely critical and enthusiastic about design. He was equally passionate and cognizant of literature, wit, images, vogue, artwork, music and sport. When that experience collided along with his observations of the American spirit, the intense daylight and its impact on shade, the horizontality of the town and the graphic works of Ed Ruscha, this glorious amalgam fashioned the essential aspect in his work. He took all of it very significantly. He was a gifted typographer and his huge information and passions knowledgeable his work and had been the the explanation why he was a superb inventive director. Ed Ruscha’s “Santa Monica to Olympic” is featured within the exhibition, courtesy of the artist.
Was there an “aha” second in any piece that you simply discovered whereas curating the present?
Putting in “The Constructive” sequence of 4 prints entitled “Sure, Know*, Possibly, At the moment” was an “aha” second. The work wanted to be appreciated at scale. You could possibly actually expertise the power of those prints when held on the monumental Williamson Gallery partitions. It was extremely dynamic. I knew they had been good however I couldn’t have predicted this impact.
How would you describe Clive, and by extension, the gestalt of the exhibition itself?
Sure, it’s a look “Contained in the Thoughts of the Designer.” Here’s a quote from James Biber, architect who flew in for the opening: “What a thrill final evening was! The exhibition is actually beautiful and such a improbable tribute to Clive. What’s so good (and I hope there are newspapers, mags, and many others. lined as much as evaluation it) is that it’s about Clive and never simply his work. These issues are onerous (perhaps inconceivable) to separate and most exhibitions miss the individual in favor of their output. The choice to create his desk/workplace scene and the desk of objects is so, so Clive. And as I used to be saying, the wall of artifacts was so good to check intimately to see what he did and what he discovered/collected.”
Was there something that you might not match or discover that you simply miss not being proven?
I had bold plans. The emblem id and branding Clive created for Roxy and Quicksilver was utilized in surprising methods. I wished to incorporate the hull of the Roxy racing yacht, with its after-race battered sail. Clive designed the kind and the applying of the colour blocks. It was a whole design.
Why is it known as Whats up, LA?
LA is a kind of locations on the planet that you simply really feel you already know by movie and tv. That mentioned, once you get right here it’s completely different. Whats up, LA is a phrase each new seeker says after they arrive.
What is going to occur to the work once you say goodbye?
ArtCenter Archives will home his recordings, displays, movie and graphic catalog. There will even be key printed items archived. Denise Gonzalez Crisp can be instrumental in serving to to collate this materials.
