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The Lustigs: A Cover Story – Exhibition at AIGA National Design Center

If ever I yearned to be in New York City in the winter it was now. On display now through February 15 the AIGA National Design Center in New York hosts The Lustigs: A Cover Story,  described by AIGA as “an encyclopedic exhibition of the Lustigs’ design work.” Lovers of visual junk already know I’m a fan of the Lustigs’ work and so my excitement about this should come as no surprise. Their individual graphical styles seemed to complement each other’s, which one might expect in a husband and wife dynamic. However, both Elaine’s and Alvin’s work stand strongly as individual bodies in and of themselves.

What makes this particular exhibition shine is that many of the works are presented in final form — meaning that, in addition to the usual framed, precious-objects-behind-glass, many works appear as vintage printed books mounted to the walls (see inset). Such a presentation makes a world of difference; like seeing the actual Mona Lisa rather than a picture in a book — no matter how beautifully it was reproduced. See you in New York!

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Envisioning Information

From the AIGA Archives: Election maps, The New York Times is a nice recap of The New York Times’ information design take on the 2000 elections, which yielded a much divided view of the country, but not necessarily the red states vs. blue states image most of us expected. The map-based charts showed dark blue urban centers surrounded by expanses of pink and red rural areas, which dotted the geographic majority of the country.