Noteworthy

The most recent accession to the West Michigan Graphic Design Archives includes 36 projects by Nancy Yerkes. The work includes marketing materials for the furniture industry and area governmental and nonprofit organizations, as well as personal holiday cards and birth announcements, representing skills in  logo design, typography, and illustration. All display Nancy’s solid and often […]

The fourth event in The Archives Series hosted by AIGA West Michigan is planned for Thursday, October 17, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The location will be the newly expanded Newell Brands Design Center, in Kalamazoo, both a showplace and work site for multi-disciplinary design teams. The theme, “Transform,” includes special effects that go to […]

The third event in the AIGA The Archives Series is scheduled for Monday evening, August 12, at the Saugatuck Center for the Arts. Called ‘Discovery: Beyond White Paper,’ the event will include a short presentation and exhibit of over 40 pieces from the archives collection that demonstrate the possibilities beyond ink on white paper. You’ll […]

AIGA West Michigan has announced the second in its four-part series in collaboration with the West Michigan Graphic Design Archives, focused on “color.”  Among the questions to be explored through this selection from the complete Archives collection are: • What can be achieved with one color? How about twelve colors? • How does colored paper play a […]

On February 26, AIGA West Michigan hosted the first of four events featuring a special presentation of work from the Archives. This first event focused on 16 posters and 40 smaller pieces that showed a connection between designers, photographers, and illustrators. The presentation was curated by Barbara Loveland and Linda Powell, 2017 AIGA West Michigan Fellow Award […]

The West Michigan Graphic Design Archives, housed at the Zhang Regional Collections Center on the campus of Western Michigan University, invites visitors to tour its facility and view its collection. An in-person introduction to the contents and services of the Archives is invaluable to design students, educators, researchers, and practitioners. The Archives offers tours of […]

This fall, 49 projects from Square One Design were added to the West Michigan Graphic Design Archives. The projects include work for Steelcase, Herman Miller, Prince, Bexley Health, Underground Studio, X-Rite, Autocam, and others. Square One Design was established in Grand Rapids in 1985 by Lin Ver Meulen. Their primary focus is corporate graphic design: […]

Thank you to Newell Brands, which donated five portable display stands that the Archives can use for exhibiting up to 30 posters from the collection at off-site locations. We’re also grateful to be a resource to designers at the Newell Brands Design Center in Kalamazoo, who regularly access the collection for reference and creative inspiration. […]

The Graphic Design Archives at Zhang Legacy Collections Center was pleased to host Christine Schaaf, Midwest national accounts manager for Mohawk Paper Company, and Chuck Oleniczak, specification sales director for Central Michigan Paper (and member of the Archives advisory board) this spring. They were able to reminisce over projects in the collection printed on Mohawk […]

After review, the graphic design advisory committee has received a number of additions to the collection, representing the timeframe from the 1940s through the 2010s. Over 40 pieces are included, representing the work of, Irving Harper, John Massey, Roger Gould, Steve Frykholm, Yang Kim, and others. While every piece is of interest, a few parts […]

The archives is pleased to have all 38 Herman Miller picnic posters in-house. These include 20 from Steve Frykholm, 11 from Kathy Stanton, five from Brian Edlefson, and two from Andrew Dull. While many of the posters are included in various collections (MOMA, Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, for example), we’re not aware of many […]

Our physical archive is valuable, without question. It’s the photography of each individual piece that allows people around the world to browse and learn from our collection. That’s only possible because of the expertise and time donated by a number of people: Yolanda Gonzalez and Mike Gorman, the Mr & Mrs creative team; Martin Schoenborn; […]

The Ferris State University student team for the West Michigan Graphic Design Archive Website project won silver at the ADDY awards, in the category S12 Website (Desktop or Mobile). Congratulations to those students – Blake Olinger-Royer, Natalie Ezabele, and Andrea Cordes – and to the faculty members who advised them, Nic Mata and Alison Popp. […]

Over 50 designs from the West Michigan Graphic Design Archives will be on display through December 20, 2017 at the Zhang Legacy Collections Center, Western Michigan University, 1650 Oakland Drive. Stop in to see archival design work from Upjohn, Brunswick, WMU College of Fine Arts, Herman Miller, and French Paper.  

The Archives would not have come into being without support and contributions from: AIGA West Michigan Central Michigan Paper Ferris State University French Paper Company Herman Miller, Inc. Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University Zhang Legacy Collections Center at Western Michigan University For the various gifts of knowledge, skills, and other […]

Linda Powell and Barbara Loveland, both nationally recognized graphic designers and experienced educators, identified the need for the Archives through conversations with former colleagues and mentors. They recruited professionals with an interest in the intersecting fields of graphic design, paper, and printing, whom we recognize with gratitude for their investment in shaping the vision: John […]