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Rick Griffith

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Ricardo "Rick" Griffith (born 1969) is a British graphic designer and master letterpress printmaker of West Indian descent.[1][2][3] One of Griffith's best-known contributions to letterpress printmaking is annotation, and his most famed work is the poster “Introductory Ethic for Designers.”[4][5][6][7] Griffith was PRINT Magazine's first Artist-in-Residence.[4] He owns and operates MATTER,[8][9] a design studio, typography laboratory, and design bookstore, which was the first Black-owned bookstore in Colorado.[7][10] Griffith founded the Black Astronaut Research Project (BLARP.org).[11][12] As a designer, art director, master letterpress printmaker, writer, curator, educator, lecturer, and activist, Griffith works to create and disseminate graphics geared towards dismantling white supremacy and racism in the interest of reparative justice.[13][12][14][15][16]

He is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, USA, where he was the City Commissioner for Public Art and Culture.[17][18]

Biography

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Griffith was born the UK, raised in Southeast London, and educated at Colfe’s College, Sidcup, United Kingdom.[17][1] He immigrated to the United States in the late 1980s, and attended West Springfield High School, Fairfax County, VA.[17]

Immersed in the Washington, DC, punk rock scene, Griffith worked in a record store.[17] There, he first encountered Sound-on-Sound, by the group Bill Nelson's Red Noise.[17] Inspired by the font used on their album cover, Griffith found his way into graphic design.[17] A freelance career on Madison Avenue funded his first practice, RGD (Rick Griffith Design). With his partner, Debra Johnson, Griffith founded MATTER in Denver, Colorado, which, over the last two decades, has grown into a design consultancy, print shop, workshop and Denver's only black-owned retail bookstore.[19][20][10][17][21][22][23]

Residencies, exhibitions, and awards

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Griffith's work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denver, the Denver Art Museum, the Butler Library of Rare Books and Manuscripts at Columbia University, the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota, Duluth, the Western New York Book Art Collaborative] (WNYBAC); and Columbia College's Center for the Book in Chicago, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, and at AIGA New York.[24][17][25][26][27]

Griffith has been a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts since 1994 and served as president of the Colorado Chapter from 1995 to 1998, continuing to serve on their advisory board through 2006.[28] He served on the Denver City and County Cultural Commission from 2012 to 2016, and on the Board of Directors for the Alliance for Contemporary Art at the Denver Art Museum.[29] He was inducted into the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences in 2001 and presently serves as the Services Nominating Chair.[30]

In December 2020, Griffith was named PRINT Magazine's first artist-in-residence, during which he wrote a column, Processing.[6][31][4] Griffith twice chaired the national AIGA Design Conference.[30] He also has been a judge for the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum's National Design Awards.[32][30]

Griffith was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters at the Art Institute of Chicago; received the Denver One Club Award in 2017 and 2018; the Type Director's Club award in 2004, was included in HOW Magazine's International Posters edition in 2004, and received Print Magazine regional awards in 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, and 2009; was included in AIGA's 50 Books/50 Covers in 2004;[33] and the Belmar Award for Achievement in Art and Design in 2004.

Griffith has lectured widely and worked as a visiting professor at a number of universities, such as University of Louisville Hite Art Institute, University of Southern California Roski School of Design, Montana State University, South Dakota State University, University of Texas, Austin, University of Minnesota, Duluth, and the Hamilton Wood Type and Printing Museum.[34][35][18][36] He has served as an adjunct professor at the University of Denver, University of Colorado, Denver, and has been a visiting artist at the Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design and the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, and the 2022-2023 Roy Acuff Chair of Excellence at Austin Peay State University.[37]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Compression Plates 1 - 10 from Seeking New Suprematist Forms Through Typography | Denver Art Museum". www.denverartmuseum.org. Retrieved 2024-06-27.
  2. ^ Carter, David E. (2000). The Big Book of Design Ideas. HBI. ISBN 9780688179861.
  3. ^ Ebert, Grace (September 17, 2020). "Field Notes Launches New Collection of Letterpress Notebooks Designed by Nine Printers Across the U.S." COLOSSAL.
  4. ^ a b c Petit, Zachary (December 16, 2020). "Rick Griffith: The Art and Craft of the Second-Guess". www.printmag.com.
  5. ^ Doorley, Scott; Carter, Carissa (2024-06-18). Assembling Tomorrow: A Guide to Designing a Thriving Future from the Stanford d.school. Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed. p. 284. ISBN 978-1-9848-5819-1.
  6. ^ a b Petit, Zachary (December 23, 2020). "Last-Minute Gifts for Designers: Rick Griffith's Words to Design (and Live) By". www.printmag.com.
  7. ^ a b "Interview with Exhibiting Denver-based Visual Artist, Rick Griffith". MCA Denver. Retrieved 2024-06-26.
  8. ^ Cezzar, Juliette (2018). The AIGA Guide to Careers in Graphic and Communication Design. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 222, 147, 4, 7, 80, 79, 170, 78, 183, 221, 184. ISBN 9781501323676.
  9. ^ "MATTER – Denver's only design studio, manufactory, and design (book) shop".
  10. ^ a b "New Tattered Cover owners defend claims of Black ownership amid national outcry". The Know. December 18, 2020.
  11. ^ "Other Worlds Film Festival announces lineup". SightLines: Art, Culture, News, and Ideas. November 18, 2020. Archived from the original on 2023-05-29.
  12. ^ a b Froyd, Susan (December 8, 2017). "Rick Griffith's Sci-Fi Fantasy: A Post-Racial World". Westword.
  13. ^ Blackcoffee Design Inc (2006). The Best of Business Card Design 6. pp. 57, 58, 59, 119, 132, 140, 141, 143, 184, 185, 192. ISBN 9781610601634.
  14. ^ Berry, Walters, Collie, Acayo Laker, Rittner, Noel (2022). The Black Experience in Design Identity, Expression and Reflection. ISBN 9781621537861.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Connellan, Shannon. "12 free and printable Black Lives Matter posters from Black artists". Mashable.
  16. ^ "Art for Change: 12 Black Designers Created Black Lives Matter Protest Posters".
  17. ^ a b c d e f g h Warner, Joel (January 4, 2011). "Rick Griffith has designs on Denver. Bold ones". Westword.
  18. ^ a b "MSU's School of Art hosts national conference for AIGA design educators". Montana State University. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  19. ^ "Lampoon Magazine | MATTER, Denver".
  20. ^ "Shop at MATTER Is Colorado's Only Black-Owned Bookstore". 5280. September 22, 2020.
  21. ^ "Looking for something to read? Here are eight independent bookstores in Denver to support". The Know. July 31, 2020.
  22. ^ "Demand for anti-racist literature is up. These black bookstore owners hope it lasts". Washington Post.
  23. ^ "Black-owned bookstores work to keep up with high demand on Black history, anti-racism books". KMGH. July 15, 2020.
  24. ^ Sherman, Nick (2010-06-20). ""Pressed" show and other typographic goings-on in Denver". Woodtyper. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  25. ^ "Colorado in the Present Tense". February 26, 2021.
  26. ^ "Rick Griffith: Genius MATTERs". July 23, 2012.
  27. ^ "Rick Griffith". MCA Denver. 2021-02-26. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  28. ^ "Past Leadership | AIGA Colorado".
  29. ^ Venues, Denver Arts &. "Denver County Cultural Council | Denver Arts & Venues". www.artsandvenuesdenver.com.
  30. ^ a b c "Rick Griffith | The future of art education | CreativeMornings/DEN". CreativeMornings. 2014-12-05. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  31. ^ Griffith, Rick (December 9, 2020). "Rick Griffith: A Love Letter to Design, a List of Demands, and a Stern Look". www.printmag.com.
  32. ^ Smithsonian Institution: Cooper Hewitt Announces 2022 National Design Award Winners. (2022, September 8). Targeted News Service (USA). Available from NewsBank: Access World News – Historical and Current.
  33. ^ https://designarchives.aiga.org/#/entries/Rick%20Griffith/_/detail/relevance/asc/0/7/2530/seeking-new-suprematist-forms-through-typography/1 50 Books/50 Covers
  34. ^ "Design Talk: Rick Griffith, Matter Studio at Cressman Center for Visual Arts". Do502. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  35. ^ "News & Events". Roski School of Art and Design. Archived from the original on 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  36. ^ "Exhibitions". Hamilton Wood Type Museum. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
  37. ^ "Acuff Chair of Excellence". www.apsu.edu. Retrieved 2024-07-04.
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  • MATTER design studio, typography laboratory and design bookstore
  • Griffith's Denver Museum of Contemporary Art Exhibit
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