James Goggin, director of Design, Print and Digital Media at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) in Chicago, visits CalArts tonight for a Field Theory lecture at the School of Art.
A well-regarded British designer, Goggin founded his studio Practise in 1999 after graduating from London’s Royal College of Art. Before launching Practise, he was based in Arnhem, the Netherlands, working as course director and teacher at Werkplaats Typografie and visiting lecturer at ECAL (Ecole cantonale d’art de Lausanne).
When he was appointed to the MCA position in 2010, i4design Magazine interviewed Goggin about his career and his plans for the museum’s visual identity. In this excerpt, Goggin provides insight into his design style:
JG: I have always tried to avoid a dogmatic application of a single aesthetic with my work, but rather let my design be defined more by a particular approach. I aim to allow the content and context of a given project inform the final outcome. This means a lot of research into both content and materials, and an ongoing dialogue with the client or subject. The look of any project therefore becomes unpredictable, and allows me to contradict myself at times: one project might be restrained visually, while another might shout louder, all depending on the specific parameters at a given time and how I choose to respond to those as a designer.
James Goggin
Field Theory lecture at CalArts
Tonight (Monday, April 4)
Room F200
7 pm