Communication Arts - 1985
Amy McFarland (‘85, Communication Arts) is the senior designer and acting head of
the graphic design department at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
As McFarland shared in her profile from “Fifty People to Watch” [Graphic Design USA,
2002], “the graphic treatment of each exhibition needs to complement what's inside
the gallery, not compete. I like to look at each project as if its subject matter
had never been seen before by the public. Part of the design process for me is to
pinpoint the essential emotions and thoughts prompted by the subject matter and reinterpret
these through typography. My ultimate audience is the public, and I am always amazed
that people do look at the graphic materials and do have reactions to them.”
McFarland has designed books as well as graphics for more than 100 exhibitions, featuring
artists such Jasper Johns, Gustav Klimt, and Picasso. She received the George Wittenborn
award for best art book of 2000 (Ghost in the Shell: Photography and the Human Soul,
1850-2000), and the American Federation of Arts best exhibition graphics award for
“When Art Became Fashion: Kosode in Edo-Period Japan.”
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