Jacqueline Casey - Graphic Designer

Jacqueline Casey was a graphic designer who worked in Brookline, USA. She worked for a company called MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) from 1955 until the day she died in 1992. The MIT Museum now exhibit her design work and have even made a book of her work which is now very rare to own.

“In the early 1950's, John Matill, a writer and editor, founded the MIT office of publications. He was joined in 1952 by Muriel Cooper. Cooper was among the first designers ever hired by a university to represent it graphically. She and Matill hired Jacqueline Casey to design summer session materials in 1955.” 

                                                                                        The text at the introduction of the book

          

An image from the MIT Museum site showing Casey's
 work being published in an exhibition. 

'Posters, Jacqueline S. Casey: Thirty Years of Design at MIT'

Casey came into creativity quite early on in her life. When she was only 22, she had received a certificate in fashion design and illustration and a bachelor of fine arts degree. She then moved onto fashion illustration, advertising, interior decorating and trade publications when she was 28 years old. As she became quite well known early on, she started to appear as a guest speaker at many museums and schools and was a judge for many creative competitions. 

This is a poster that Casey designed in 1972 when she was 45 years old for the MIT Faculty-student exchange program. 

The way she has arranged the 3 triangles is very clever, although not noticed straight away. The negative space between the red, blue and black triangles create an 'X'. This 'X' may emphasis the work 'exchange' which is in the second line of the title. The way the triangles are all pointing to the same area which is a little off center draws the eyes into the center of the page. This makes the poster very eye-catching as people may want to know what the triangles are pointing to. The use of space is very interesting in this poster, there is a lot of unused space, which allows the eye to move easily around the page, unlike some posters where there is far too much information its difficult to concentrate on just one thing. The text or information is very small. You would have to go right up to the poster to be able to read it. As a poster is designed to inform quickly and easily, I do not think making the title and information so small would attract people. On the other hand, if I saw this poster I would be intrigued to find out why the text is so small, so it may work in terms of its purpose.

Jacqueline S. Casey, “Body Language: Figurative Aspects of Recent Art” exhibition poster for the MIT Hayden Gallery, 1981. 

Unlike the above poster, this one does not have a clear focal point. My eyes dart around the large lettering that looks 3D, trying to work out how I can still read the text as half of it has been blacked out. This is very clever of Casey to design the lettering in that way, it feels like it should be difficult to read but because the lettering has been split up, its easier to understand. The main colour for this poster is black, which is unusual for a poster. The highlights come from the 'light' hitting the letters, which makes them look 3D. Again, the actual text is very small, but the title is very bold and eye-catching. 

‘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,’ 

Casey told Liz McQuiston in Women In Design (Trefoil, 1988).

I am beginning to notice a pattern trend in all of Casey's design work. A visual element is the main focal point of the poster, and the largest which draws attention and interest. Once the viewer is looking at the poster they will instantly see the small text, which they will look closely at as its quite small. Having this interaction is so important to have because it makes the viewer feel much more trusting towards the poster. For example, if I looked at a poster that was very 'in my face' and over the top then it would make me feel like someone shouting right in front of my face. But if there was a poster that caught my attention, and interested me so that I have to walk up to the poster to read it, I would feel a lot more trusting towards it - like when you ask for information rather than having it thrown in your face. 

Bibliography

WEB

MIT News, 1992. Designer Jacqueline Casey Dies at 65.
Available at: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1992/casey-0520.html.

Eye Magazine, 2008. Not fade away.
Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/blog/post/not-fade-away

MIT Museum, 2009. Jacqueline Casey.
Available at: http://museum.mit.edu/nom150/entries/1447

Complex, 2012. 20 Graphic Designers You Should Know.
Available at: http://www.complex.com/art-design/2012/03/20-graphic-designers-you-should-know#8

Eye Magazine, 2008. Woman At the Edge of Technology.
Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/woman-at-the-edge-of-technology

BOOKS

Marter, J. 2011. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford University Press

Meggs, P. 2006. Meggs' History of Graphic Design. John Wiley & Sons