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Jennifer Morla

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Jennifer Morla
Born1955 (age 68–69)
New York City, U.S.
AwardsCooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum National Design Award[1] (2017)
AIGA Medal[2](2010)
Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) (1998)
Websitewww.morladesign.com

Jennifer Morla (born 1955, New York City) is an American graphic designer and professor based in San Francisco.[3] She received the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian National Design Award in Communication Design in 2017.

Early life and education

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Morla attended the University of Hartford in Connecticut studying conceptual art[4] before receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design in 1978 from Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts.[5] She is also mother of 2 girls. Morla married Nilas de Matran, an architect.[3]

She was influenced to undertake her career as an artist through visits to the MOMA growing up in Manhattan, seeing Charles and Ray Eames' IBM exhibit and films at the 1964 Worlds Fair, and her aunt's career as editor in the art department at Condé Nast.[6]

Career

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Design work

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After graduation in 1979, Morla was hired at PBS station KQED in San Francisco. Her job consisted of her designing on-air, print graphics and designing animated openings.[7]

In 1981, she was hired as the head of the art department of Levi Strauss & Co. Her job role consisted of designing the store environment, logos, packaging, and labels for the advertising purposes of the brand.[8]

In 1984, she founded Morla Design. Clients include The New York Times, Levi Strauss & Co., Apple Computer, Herman Miller, Stanford University, and Luna Textiles.[9][10] She has worked extensively with conceptual art venues designing identities, books and posters for The Mexican Museum, SculptureCenter, Capp Street Project, and New Langton Arts.[3] In 1995, she created a poster celebrating the 20th anniversary of the San Francisco Mexican Museum entitled El Museo Mexicano. The piece featured vibrant colors, print and pattern as a way to pay tribute to the Mexican culture.[11]

In 2000, Morla collaborated with Nordstrom creating a new face for the store's credit card to appeal to its consumers. The four holographic cards with vibrant colors and bold patterns reflected a reinvented version of the brand.[12] In 2019, Morla worked with the brand K&M Confections creating the packaging for their milk chocolate to create three different styles of packaging for the types of flavored chocolate featuring the same typeface and foil lettering texture.[13] Morla joined Design Within Reach in 2006 and developed campaigns emphasizing sustainability.[14]

Morla is regularly invited to judge design competitions, for instance the Webby Awards. She is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI).[15]

Her design work is featured in museums such as the SFMoMA[16] and referenced in books such as Meggs' History of Graphic Design,[17] and was the object of a monography in 2019.[8] It is archived at the San Francisco-based Letterform Archive.[17]

Teaching

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Since 1992 she has taught as an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts.[18][8]

Awards and recognition

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  • Cooper Hewitt, Communication Design, 2017[19]
  • AIGA Medal, for her "ability to surprise and inform through her poignant communication designs for global brands and arts institutions, and for instilling that skill in others through her teaching," 2010[7]
  • Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI)[20]
  • Her work for Design Within Reach received the AIGA Corporate Leadership Award inn 2008[7][14]

Exhibitions and collections

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Permanent collections

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  • MOMA[21]
  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art[16]
  • Smithsonian American Art Museum[22]
  • Denver Art Museum
  • Library of Congress[23]
  • Museum of Craft and Design

Solo exhibitions

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  • 2012 The Workshop Residence, San Francisco, CA The Workshop Residence: Jennifer Morla Artist in Residence
  • 2010 California College of the Arts, CCA, San Francisco, CA Jennifer Morla: AIGA Medalist
  • 1999 San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA Jennifer Morla, Selections from the Permanent Collection
  • 1999 K Kimpton Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA Jennifer Morla, Encaustic Works on Canvas
  • 1996 Bedford Gallery, Walnut Creek, CA Morla: Bay Area Portfolio
  • 1994 DDD Design Gallery, Osaka, Japan Jennifer Morla

Group exhibitions

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Works in publications

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  • The Designer’s Dictionary of Color, Sean Adams[24]
  • Meggs' History of Graphic Design (5th Edition), Alston Purvis[25]
  • The Poster: 1000 Posters from Toulouse-Lautrec to Sagmeister, Cees W. de Jong[26]
  • Launching the Imagination, Mary Stewart[27]
  • Glimmer: How Design Can Change Your Life, Warren Berger[28]
  • i-D 2008
  • Women of Design: Influence and Inspiration, Armin Vit & Bryony Gomez[29]
  • Teaching Graphic Design, Steven Heller[30]
  • Graphic Design America 3, Jenny Sullivan[31]
  • The New York Times Magazine
  • Graphis Magazine[32]
  • Graphis Poster, Jennifer Morla foreword and introduction[33]
  • Communication Arts Magazine[34]
  • Women in Graphic Design, Gerda Breuer, Julia Meer[35]
  • HOW 15 Masters of Design: Jennifer Morla
  • IDEA Magazine (Japan)
  • Linea Graphica (Italy)
  • A Diseño (Mexico)
  • Novum (Germany)

References

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Sources

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  1. ^ Cooper Hewitt Communication Design Award
  2. ^ AIGA medalist Morla Archived 2011-05-14 at the Wayback Machine Retrieved 2015-04-14.
  3. ^ a b c Bishop, Deborah (2018-11-15). "Legendary SF designer Jennifer Morla has something to tell you in big, bold graphics". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  4. ^ "Success Ideas and Tips from Master Graphic Designer, Jennifer Morla". The Sherwood Group. 2010-10-06. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  5. ^ "Jennifer Morla". Smithsonian American Art Museum. Retrieved 2018-03-08.
  6. ^ Petit, Zachary (2016-01-25). "Jennifer Morla: "Design is Not Solely a Device That Supports Consumerism"". Print Magazine. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  7. ^ a b c Helf, Glen. "Jennifer Morla". AIGA | the professional association for design. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  8. ^ a b c "This Just In: Jennifer Morla". letterformarchive.org. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  9. ^ "Jennifer Morla". AIGA | the professional association for design. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  10. ^ "Jennifer Morla". AIGA | the professional association for design. Retrieved 2019-03-02.
  11. ^ "A look back at Jennifer Morla: El Museo Mexicano, 1995". Design Observer. Retrieved 2019-11-22.
  12. ^ "Press Releases - Nordstrom". about.nordstrom.com. Archived from the original on 2019-12-05. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  13. ^ "K+M Chocolate Packaging". PaperSpecs. 2019-01-22. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  14. ^ a b "Design Within Reach". AIGA | the professional association for design. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  15. ^ "Jennifer Morla, interviewed by Sean Adams: Continuum/Fellows Interview Series (2019)". AIGA San Francisco. 2020-02-24. Retrieved 2021-03-10.
  16. ^ a b Jennifer Morla at San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
  17. ^ a b "This Just In: Jennifer Morla". letterformarchive.org. 5 July 2018. Retrieved 2019-12-05.
  18. ^ "- California College of the Arts - Portal". portal.cca.edu. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  19. ^ "Jennifer Morla on The National Design Awards Gallery". ndagallery.cooperhewitt.org. Retrieved 2019-06-19.
  20. ^ Fox, Amy (2006-10-20). Morla, Jennifer. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/gao/9781884446054.article.t2021853.
  21. ^ Jennifer Morla at MoMa
  22. ^ Jennifer Morla at Smithsonian American Art Museum
  23. ^ Jennifer Morla at Library of Congress
  24. ^ The Designer's Dictionary of Color
  25. ^ Meggs, Philip B.; Purvis, Alston W. (2016-04-14). Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781119136200.
  26. ^ Jong, Cees de; Purvis, Alston; Lecoultre, Martiin (October 2010). The Posters: 1,000 Posters from Toulouse-Lautrec to Sagmeister. Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0810995888.
  27. ^ Stewart, Mary (11 April 2014). Launching the Imagination. McGraw-Hill Education. ISBN 9780073379302.
  28. ^ Glimmer: How Design Can Transform Your Life, Your Business, and Maybe Even the World. Random House Canada. 13 October 2009.
  29. ^ Women of Design: Influence and Inspiration from the Original Trailblazers to the New Groundbreakers.
  30. ^ Heller, Steven (September 2003). Teaching Graphic Design: Course Offerings and Class Projects from the Leading Graduate and Undergraduate Programs. Allworth. ISBN 1581153058.
  31. ^ http://www.number17.com/PressKit.pdf [bare URL PDF]
  32. ^ Jennifer Morla in Graphis
  33. ^ Graphis Poster 91. the International Annual of Poster Art. ISBN 978-3857093913.
  34. ^ http://www.commarts.com/Search.aspx?code=morla&c=True&ft=False&dt=i[permanent dead link] Jennifer Morla in Communication Arts Magazine
  35. ^ Breuer, Gerda; Meer, Julia (2012). Frauen und Grafik-Design. Jovis. ISBN 978-3868591538.
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