Reamscape
July/August 2006
photograph ©Mark Ostow

How grand were the artistic ideals of the graduating class in Yale’s graphic design program?
Exactly eight and a half by eleven inches grand. For this year’s MFA thesis exhibition, which covered the walls—and floor—of the art school’s gallery space at 1156 Chapel Street, the student designers displayed their projects using standard letter-size sheets of paper. The exhibit was much discussed on the blog DesignObserver. One critic suggested it smelled more of fine art than "design as a practical, problem-solving discipline." But School of Art faculty member Dan Michaelson argued that there are plenty of problems to solve when 15 students adapt their work to letter-size paper and collaborate on an exhibit. He added: "If part of graphic design’s job isn’t to make the world a little more fun, then count me out.”
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