Nationality American | Name Jacqueline Casey | |
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Known for Fashion Illustrator, Interior Design, Graphic Design Died 1992, Brookline, Massachusetts, United States Education Massachusetts College of Art and Design | ||
Jacqueline Casey KBG
Jacqueline Casey (20 April 1927 – 18 May 1992) was a graphic designer best known for the posters she created for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
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Background
Casey was born in 1927 in Quincy, Massachusetts. She studied for a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in fashion design and illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art (MassArt), graduating in 1949. After graduating, she had a number of jobs, including work in interior design and advertising.
MIT
In 1955, she was recruited by fellow MassArt alumna Muriel Cooper to work at the Office of Publications at MIT. In 1972, Casey became Director, taking over this position as her colleague joined the MIT faculty. The two women were among the few working at this professional level at MIT of the time.
During her tenure as Director, Casey became known for designing distinctive publicity posters for MIT events, working alongside Ralph Coburn and Dietmar Winkler. Casey's designs were influenced by the International Typographic Style recently developed in Switzerland, particularly designers such as Karl Gerstner, Armin Hofmann and Josef Müller-Brockmann.
Casey's posters generally consisted of a striking image or bold typography, accompanied by informational details in small text. She often used typographic wordplay and visual puns in her work. Speaking of her designs in 1988, she said: "My job is to stop anyone I can with an arresting or puzzling image, and entice the viewer to read the message in small type and above all to attend the exhibition."
As well as being used for promotion of on-campus events and in MIT publications, Casey's work was exhibited at MIT, the Chelsea School of Art in London and the London College of Printing.
Casey retired from her role as director in 1989, but continued to work as a visiting scholar at the MIT Media Laboratory.
Legacy
Casey's work is held in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum.
The MIT Museum mounted an exhibition of Casey's graphic work in 1992, and again in 2012. In addition to the MIT holdings, the Rochester Institute of Technology has a collection of 99 posters, donated posthumously at the designer's request.
Awards and honors
Casey has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including: