ICA and AIGA PRESENT

MICHAEL ROCK

All That Is Solid Melts Into Air 

The Interface Between Graphic Design and Architecture
 

Join Michael Rock—founding partner and Creative Director of 2x4 Inc., and Director of the Graphic Architecture Project at Columbia University—for a look at emerging forms of image production that live in, on, and around architectural space.

Architects have long synthesized diverse disciplines including design, structure, and building systems. Now, however, with eponymous digital media production, these discplines and others previously thought of as "outside" of architecture—such as branding, advertising, promotion, public relations, publishing, display, film, interactive media, and social networking—are now not only more prominent, but often considered primary in the professional development of the built environment. In this context, alternative forms of architectural practice have a greater influence over the public's experience of buildings, landscape, and cities. 

Michael Rock is a founding partner and Creative Director of the multi-disciplinary design studio 2x4 Inc. in New York City, and Director of the Graphic Architecture Project at the Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation. At 2x4 Rock leads a wide range of both cultural and commercial projects for Prada, Kanye West, Nike, CCTV, MTV, Chanel, and others.

From 1984­ to 1991, he was Associate Professor of Graphic Design at the Rhode Island School of Design, and since 1991 he has been a member of the design faculty at the Yale School of Art where he currently holds the rank of Adjunct Professor. In addition he was a fellow at the Jan Van Eyck Akademie in Maastricht, The Netherlands, and a contributing editor and graphic design journalist at I.D. Magazine in New York. His writing on design has appeared in publications worldwide. He holds an BA in Humanities (Literature) from Union College and an MFA from the Rhode Island School of Design. He is the recipient of the 1999/2000 Rome Prize in Design from the American Academy in Rome and currently serves on their board.

In 2005, the work of 2x4 Inc. was the subject of a mid-career retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. The following yeam, 2x4 received the National Design Award in Communication Design from the Smithsonian. In 2008, 2x4 was featured in a 12-month exhibition in the Architecture and Design galleries at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and in 2009, a selection of projects opened at the Gyre Gallery in Tokyo. The catalogue from that exhibition, titled it is what it is, was released in 2010. A new book of writing, Multiple Signatures, is scheduled for release from Rizzoli in Spring 2013.