Identity, Physical
The Smithsonian Institute and USA Today reached out to us to conceptualize and design a twelve-page activity insert that would run in USA Today. The concept and design uses objects from Smithsonian’s collections to create fun learning opportunities for families to come together and bridge generational gaps between the past and present.
The Smithsonian Institute is the world’s largest museum and research complex, with 19 museums, 9 research centers, and affiliates around the world. The Institute has been termed “the nation’s attic” for its eclectic holdings of 154 million items.
Museum & Research Complex
Concept, design, and curate a fun and educational 12-page activity book that would run in USA Today that showcases artifacts from the Smithsonian archives and helps bridge generational gaps between the past and present.
Smithsonian Institute
2020
Washington, DC, USA
Yesterday, Today celebrates the interconnectedness of some our nation’s cultural milestones. Through the lens of the Smithsonian archives, Yesterday Today bridge generational gaps between our past and present, and how key moments, individuals, and innovations, led us to the world we live in today.
Over the course of twelve pages, we explore three distinct time capsules illuminating the invisible threads that run through history. The first, Space Race to Smartphone, connects the dots from the beginnings of space exploration to the invention of the smartphone. Car manufacturing has always been an essential part of the American identity. In Oil Shock to Electric Car we reveal how the oil shortages of the 1970’s laid the path for the green advances we’re seeing in transportation today. In the words of Andy Warhol, “In the future everyone will be world-famous for 15-minutes.” Pop Art to Social Media traces the rise of social media from the dawn of pop art and reality tv.
Activities and mind games are incorporated throughout, including emoji codes, future predictions, a create your own pixel icon graph, and a full spread of Solitaire in the iconic Windows interface style released in 1990.
Artifacts from nineteen Smithsonian museums, Cultural milestones from the last century, 80’s operating system interfaces
Yesterday, Today appeared in 1.7 million newspapers.
USA Today estimates that each newspaper is read by 2.5 people (including families, roommates, public places).
Concept, Curation, Print Design
Principal: Michael Ellsworth
Principal: Corey Gutch
Creative Direction: Gabriel Stromberg
Design: Òscar Viñas
Research: Molly Derse
Account Management: Raya Leary
Published in the USA Today and read by over 4 million people nationwide, ‘Yesterday, Today’ is a fun and educational activity guide that bridges generational gaps by celebrating unexpected connections between the past and present found within the Smithsonian’s collections.
Verbalizing design is another act of design.Kenya Hara from Designing Design
Your culture (whoever you are) is as important as our culture (whoever we are).Colors Magazine
A designer’s role is a role of good citizenship.Milton Glaser
The goal of design is to elevate expectations and make something artful.Paula Scher
We have to overcome the obstacles and rise up to the challenges.Emory Douglas Minister of Culture for the Black Panther Party
Graphic design is not a luxury, but a necessity.Wim Crouwel
Consider everything an experiment.Sister Corita Kent
Good art inspires; Good design motivates.Otl Aicher
Design is art that people use.Ellen Lupton
Design is just language and the real issue is what you use that language to do.Tibor Kalman
To complicate is simple.Bruno Munari
To simplify is complicated.
Everybody is able to complicate.
Only a few can simplify.
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