When I got involved in curating the graphic-design component of this alumni exhibit for the Krannert Art Museum at UIUC, all I really wanted was to meet John Massey, one of my design heroes. When I found myself designing the exhibit’s mark, I wanted to come up with something that would live up to the great work featured in the exhibit by Massey, Stumpf, Sommese, Grillo, Grady, Hunt, Faust, Rutter, and many others. Had there been enough time—or if it had not been pro bono work—I would have been asked to redo it. “Too hard to decipher,” was the usual suspect’s feedback. Exactly! For a few seconds, most people look somewhat puzzled at the treatment, but when they get it, I detect a smile: experience—perhaps the most flaunted word in design today. But when was what we do not an experience?

“Fresh environmental applications.”