On Wednesday, February 20, 2013, Manuel Miranda gave a talk at Bumble & bumble entitled AIGA/NY Manuel Miranda, A Question of Identity.

AIGA/NY Board Vice President, Glen Cummings of MTWTF, gave a brief introduction. He mentioned that one of the things that most impressed him about Miranda early on was “a complexity in the way Manuel thought about the world, but a real directness in the kinds of objects he made. These strong objects connect to a world of strong ideas.”

Miranda began by describing what “identity” means to him. He spoke about his own multi-faceted identity, and about the diversity and openness to change he encountered upon coming to New York. “Identities aren’t fixed images or logos, but systems,” Miranda explained, “and those systems can be loose and faceted while maintaining some consistency,” he said.

Miranda explained that the phrase A Question of Identity comes from a James Baldwin essay of the same name. “James Baldwin wrote that when you fall down, you put yourself back together with the strong parts that are left over,” said Miranda. This idea particularly resonated with him when he opened his own studio, now called MMP. “The benefit of working on your own,” he said “is that you get to see what you do and what you’re made of.”

Miranda shared work separated into three categories.

Identity and Language

In this section, Miranda presented work he did for the city of New York. One was an initiative in response to the suicide of 18-year-old Tyler Clementi in 2010.

The other was a campaign encouraging young, non-driving New Yorkers to acquire city ID cards. Both involved the creation of a direct but flexible system that could be applied in many different ways. “This kind of campaign communicates a message, not just a brand,” Miranda said.

Identity and Institutions

Working for institutions is appealing to Miranda because they are “policy and mission driven, rather than money driven.” One of these pieces was the identity for the Van Alen Bookstore. The logo was derived from the stacked doors that make up the bookstore’s reading room, and also mimics stacked books. “The logo is very loose,” Miranda explained. “It can fit where it needs to.”

Miranda also designed identities and posters for specific programs at the institute, each of which requires its own identity but must also fit the institution’s larger identity and mission. “Your work becomes part of an archive, and becomes part of the history of the institution,” said Miranda. “As a designer, you can mark a space for a certain degree of its history.”

Identity and Space

This section consisted of exhibitions Miranda designed for the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons. Exhibit design appeals to Miranda because it allows him “see how far a concept can go, from flat, to three-dimensional to virtual, and see how those pieces fit together into one cohesive experience,” he said.

Miranda shared an exhibit titled Cartoon Polymaths, whose identity featured a randomized typeface to reflect the “polymath” concept. Inspired by a comic strip technique in which many things happen simultaneously in different frames of one page, the exhibit was organized into many separate display areas, each featuring the work of one artist.

Next, Miranda shared some less traditional exhibit projects which focus not only on the display of objects, and more on creating a space for workshops and other unique experiences. Finally, Art Environment Action! was an exhibition with no objects in the traditional sense; instead, it was a set of props, or a “toybox of possibilities,” that artists could use to create workshop spaces to suit their needs. Again, both the identity and the design of the space reflected the spontaneity and flexibility of the programming occurring inside.

Miranda showed installation photos from this project, explaining that in his mind, “photos of the site under construction reveal the spirit in which things were made.” An exhibition opening, he said, “always brings a certain finality to the project because everyone basically shows up, so there’s a cutoff point.”

Art Environment Action! was unique, though — each artist left something behind from his or her workshop as a contribution to the space, creating “an exhibition that’s under construction until it closes.”

The session ended with a Q&A. One audience member asked Miranda about his ability to reuse the same exhibition space again and again, without ever getting bored. Miranda’s response seemed to encapsulate his vision of identity as an ever-changing system. “I think that as a designer, you have to like repetition,” he said. “You have to think about ways to do things in a different way each time.”

Additional Information:
Manuel Miranda
The Van Alen Institute
The Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons

Event Details:
AIGA/NY Manuel Miranda, A Question of Identity

Event Photos:
Click here to view all photos from AIGA/NY Manuel Miranda, A Question of Identity on Flickr.
To view additional photos, or to contribute your photos, visit our AIGA New York Flickr group.

Special thanks to guest contributing writer, Karen Vanderbilt, for the AIGA/NY Manuel Miranda, A Question of Identity event recap and photos. Karen Vanderbilt can be found at Ideas On Purpose, and Some of the Parts.