Alumna Anne Galperin Remembers Former Co-head of Design, P. Scott Makela
Detail from The Minneapolis College of Art and Design
1993-1995 catalog, designed by P. Scott Makela;
Courtesy the Minneapolis College of Art and Design.
Alumna Anne Galperin (MFA Design 1997) recently revisited her 1997 interview with then Co-head of 2D Design, P. Scott Makela (MFA Design 1991) in Print Mag, marking 25 years since Makela’s passing. Glaperin notes Makela was a ‘creator of postmodern visual languages outside normative graphic design.’
After his undergraduate studies at Minneapolis College of Art and Design (1984), Makela spent several years in Los Angeles building his studio Commbine with Paul Knickelnine and Laurie Haycock. In the late 80s, Makela and Haycock came to Michigan to pursue their graduate studies at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the Design department under Katherine and Michael McCoy.
Mohawk Paper Mills promotion “Re-thinking Design,” copyright 1992, pages 14-23, Tucker Viemeister and P. Scott Makela’s collaboration “On Doing Nothing.” Scans of the original, courtesy of Anne Galperin.
A 1994 article from Eye Magazine explored Makela’s background and style, shortly before he would return to the Academy.
P. Scott Makela and his spouse, Laurie Haycock Makela, ran the 2D Design department at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1996 to 1999. After Scott’s death, Laurie continued to run the department through 2001. She returned in 2013 to give a lecture, “Dead History: An Era, A Tyepface, and A Love Story” about Scott at the deSalle Auditorium.
Learn more:
25 Years After P. Scott Makela’s Death, A Former Student Revisits the Idiosyncratic Designer
P. Scott Makela, 39, Pioneering Graphic Designer, Dies – The New York Times (1999)
