The Evolving Face of Main Streets, USA
Wednesday, March 25
7 – 8:30 pm (doors open 6:30 pm)
FREE for ASM members and Students with ID | $20 for non-members
Refreshments available for purchase
The main streets of communities across the U.S. are supported by their businesses. Those businesses are in turn supported by creatives across fields like graphic design and signmaking to create vibrant and memorable visual messaging that can turn streets into spectacles. Join the ASM for a panel discussion for a dive into how graphic design and signage in particular have shaped the face of main streets across the country over the past century.
Taking inspiration from the ASM’s exhibition, Back to the Drawing Board: The Art of the Sign Sketch 1925 – 1975, our panel of experts will discuss how graphic and commercial design have evolved over time in response to new technologies and cultural shifts and explore how the artistic process has been impacted.
Meet the panel
Moderator: Randy Smith – Randy recently retired from a 35-year career as Creative Director for Jack Rouse Associates (JRA), Randy provided design leadership for a variety of JRA’s museum and entertainment projects. His close relationship with clients sent him around the world working for LEGO, Ferrari, Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Kodak, Cincinnati History Museum and Ohio Village to name a few.
D.J. Trischler – D.J. is an assistant professor of communication design at the University of Cincinnati’s Ullman School of Design at DAAP, focused on community-engaged research driven by participatory design processes embedded in relationships between people, place, and the living world.
Muhammad nafisur Rahman – Muhammad is an assistant professor of communication design at the University of Cincinnati’s Ullman School of Design at DAAP and research lead of the eXperiential Design Lab (XDL). His work spans typography, environmental graphic design, exploring how communication, community co-design can shape legible, inclusive urban environments.
Stephanie Sadre-Orafai – Stephanie is associate professor of anthropology and director and faculty chair of the Taft Research Center at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on creative labor in aesthetic industries, emerging forms of expertise, and the intersection of race, language, and visual practices.
Tod Swormstedt – Tod is the founder & curator of the American Sign Museum. He formerly served as the editor & publisher of Signs of the Times magazine and parlayed his knowledge of signs and connections to the sign industry into the creation of the Museum.
