In-Person ARTalk - Alexander Isley: Working with Words

Award-winning graphic designer Alexander Isley will show work from artists who have influenced him over the years, covering a wide spectrum from Herbert Bayer to Mad magazine. His distinctive, editorially-driven design combines text and imagery in compelling ways, and his passion for typography, identity, and environmental design conveys a strong sense of aesthetics and personality. Isley uses typography in inventive ways to create magazines, exhibits, store interiors, packaging, signage, posters, restaurants, album covers, websites, truck fleets, billboards, and books. His clients include The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Spy magazine, Giorgio Armani, Nickelodeon, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, Museum of the Moving Image, Ina Garten, David Byrne, Highlights for Children, The Smithsonian Institution, and the Ridgefield Library.

Alexander Isley Biography

Alexander Isley first gained recognition in the early 1980s as the senior designer at Tibor Kalman’s influential studio M&Co. He then went on to serve as the first full-time art director of the funny and fearless Spy magazine. Alex founded his own firm in 1988 in New York City, and in 1995 he relocated the office to Connecticut where he works in a barn surrounded by trees. In 1993, Alex was named an inaugural member of “The I.D. 40,” a survey of the country’s leading design innovators. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, the Zurich Design Museum, the Poster House Museum, and the Library of Congress. In 2014 he was awarded the profession’s highest honor, the AIGA Medal, in recognition of lifetime achievement and contributions to the field. In a recent Graphic Design: USA magazine poll, Alex was named by his peers as one of the most influential designers of the past 50 years.

The Library's ARTalk series is dedicated to exploring the creative process through lectures, films, and workshops that focus on art, architecture, and design. ARTalks are co-sponsored by the Ridgefield Library, Ridgefield Guild of Artists and, in part, The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum and also in partnership with the Kunhardt Film Foundation.

Please register below.