2D Design

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Department Philosophy

The 2D Design department is the graduate graphic design department of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Department Philosophy

The 2D Design department is the graduate graphic design department of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

The 2D Design department actively explores the relationship between writing, criticism, and production with an emphasis on the experimental. The results of these investigations often exist at the threshold between design and art.

“How Cranbrook’s Design Program Redefined How We Make and Talk About Graphic Design” by AIGA Eye on Design

Read the Story

Elliot Earls

The Cranbrook Experience in 2D Design

Elliot Earls

The Cranbrook Experience in 2D Design

Elliott Earls, by Eric Perry

Designer in Residence

Elliott Earls

Elliott Earls experiments in non-linear digital video, spoken word poetry, music composition, and design, all of which he has used in work for clients such as Elektra Entertainment, Nonesuch Records, The Cartoon Network (U.K.), and Janus Films. As a typographer, his original type design is distributed worldwide by Emigre Inc. His posters are part of the permanent collection of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. He currently hosts the YouTube series “Studio Practice” that takes a look inside the designer’s studio.

Issues pursued in the department:

1. Work situated at the intersection of design and art.
2. An exploration of the relationship between writing, criticism and production.
3. The process of critique as a generative tool.
4. An interdisciplinary approach to design.
5. Objects first: theory, language, and writing all in support of the object.

Program

The Academic Focus of the Department

Program

The Academic Focus of the Department

Nearly all departmental activities are designed to support the act of making. Whether it is in critique, reading group, critical studies or individual desk critiques, our departmental focus is on the notion that design is idea objectified and meaning embodied. Theory, writing and criticism all play critically important roles in the department; however, they are in place primarily to support the process of objectification and making. This focus is articulated in our weekly structure, where the lion’s share of our time is dedicated to studio practice. Simply put, this means we make work (together), discuss this work and consider its cultural implications.

Student Work

Mapping the Cultural Terrain of the Department and its Work

As a graduate graphic design department there are certain fundamental issues that permeate our discourse – Efficacy of communication, typographic expression and the cultural role of the designer are chief among them. However the department is also acutely interested in an expanded and enlarged definition of the field. This means that issues germane to the other ten disciplines at Cranbrook are fair game in the department. Our departmental discourse owes more to El Lissitzky than Paul Rand. We are intellectually indebted to John Heartfield and Kurt Schwitters, Richard Prince and Ed Ruscha. We are as interested in Takeshi Murakami as we are Herb Lubalin.

Elliott Earls

My Chevy Gives Olio Sometimes, 2018

The Designer-in-Residence, His Work and Your Relationship to Both

The Artist-in-Residence is charged with mentoring each of the members in his or her studio. In the 2D Design department, Elliott Earls works intimately with each student to craft a course of study unique to the individual. In addition to the larger Cranbrook studio each student is deeply involved in Elliott’s professional practice. An important and programmed part of the curriculum involves a sustained dialog between student and mentor concerning both parties’ work. The mentoring process in the 2D Design department is developed further through biweekly mentoring dinners held at Elliott Earls’s home.