AIGA Medal awarded to Fella, Lupton, Mau and Olden

NEW YORK, February 27, 2007. For their sustained contributions to design excellence and the development of the profession, AIGA, the professional association for design, is proud to name Edward Fella, Ellen Lupton, Bruce Mau and Georg Olden as the 2007 recipients of the AIGA Medal. Awarded annually the AIGA Medal recognizes individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the field of design and visual communication.

Edward Fella is recognized for his eccentric letterforms and compositions, which came into fruition in the 1980s and subsequently influenced the course of expressive typography in the ensuing decades. A self-described “commercial artist,” Fella began his career in Detroit’s advertising world of the 1950s, and nearly 30 years later entered graduate school at Cranbrook Academy of Art. For the past 20 years he has been a faculty member at CalArts, where has had a profound influence on a younger generation of designers.

Ellen Lupton is a master of words. She established her presence in the graphic design world in the 1980s through the trailblazing activities of her studio, Design Writing Research, co-founded with her husband and partner J. Abbott Miller. Lupton’s intellectual curiosity, influential ideas and passion for the field converge in her activities as a curator of contemporary design at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York, as a writer of books on typography and design, and as director of the graduate design program at the Maryland Institute College of Art.

Bruce Mau is noted for crossing disciplinary boundaries, a leitmotif of his eponymous design studio based in Toronto, yet influential in the United States and worldwide. Mau’s noted collaborations with leading artists, scholars, architects and business leaders have produced enormously diverse projects that range from books and exhibitions, to landscapes and textiles. His recent establishment of the Institute without Boundaries—a combination school, studio and think tank—and its inaugural project “Massive Change” tackle the most enormous challenge of all: the design of our world.

Georg Olden is honored posthumously for a lifelong career in communication design. Olden made his name designing early television graphics in the 1940s and 1950s. As an art director at CBS for 15 years, he led the network’s design of on-air promotions and news graphics. Olden later worked at BBDO as the television group art director, and became vice president of McCann-Erickson. He was the first African American commissioned by the United States Postal Service to design a postage stamp and was the graphic designer to the International Secretariat at the United Nations. He received seven Clio awards and earned an advertising prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

“This year’s living honorees represent the discrete and complementary facets of design when it is practiced at its best,” said Richard Grefé, AIGA executive director. “All are educators. All influence others. Yet they range from the designer who captures stories visually; to the thoughtful curator, critic and writer; to the designer that reaches from design on a human scale to the global challenges. Georg Olden, who receives the award posthumously, is recognized for his enduring work and his influence as an art director in the mid-20th century emerging medium of television, as well as creating lasting images for public institutions.”

The AIGA Medal is the highest honor of the graphic design profession, and has been given to its distinguished practitioners, educators and role models since 1920. Its value accrues from its association with the professionals who have inspired us all with creativity, intelligence, perception and skill. A complete list of past recipients may be found at www.aiga.org/aigamedalists.

About AIGA
AIGA, the professional association for design, is the oldest and largest membership association for design professionals engaged in the discipline, practice and culture of designing.

Founded in 1914, AIGA has become the pre-eminent professional association for communication designers, broadly defined. In the past decade, designers have increasingly been involved in creating value for clients (whether public or business) through applying design thinking to complex problems, even when the outcomes may be more strategic, multi-dimensional and conceptual than what most would consider traditional communication design. AIGA now represents more than 18,000 designers of all disciplines through national activities and local programs developed by more than 55 chapters and 200 student groups. AIGA supports the interests of professionals, educators and students who are engaged in the process of designing. The association is committed to stimulating thinking about design, demonstrating the value of design and empowering success for designers throughout the arc of their careers.

More information may be found at www.aiga.org.

For further information, please contact:
Katie English
AIGA | the professional association for design
Tel 212 710 3136 Fax 212 807 1799
katie_english@aiga.org