ART LEAGUE GALLERY
Recent Works by Robert Sedlack • March 21 - June 28, 2009
At its basic level, graphic design is the combination of type and image used to communicate a message visually, most often for clients to specific audiences. In a broader and more profound sense, graphic design is a culture-shaping force that has the ability to powerfully effect change. Clients provide subject matter that differs with each new project. The designer collaborates with clients during the research and design stages, as well as throughout the application process (production and distribution). The application phase often involves a wide variety of people and organizations including writers, photographers, illustrators, printers, and code writers. Integration with other disciplines is an essential part of the world of graphic design.
Robert Sedlack's educational background and professional experience have shaped his design aesthetic to be primarily concerned with clarity of purpose and appropriateness of form. In contrast to examples of design that are more personally expressive, his approach focuses on maximizing the audience’s ability to access and understand the information that he is providing. Sedlack’s specific area of interest is visual identity because these projects require both a strategic and a holistic approach. Each identity project presents its own set of challenges. Examples of the process and product of various identities produced by his current firm, Sedlack Design Associates, will be exhibited at the SBMA and will illustrate the range of projects he has encountered, from large corporate clients to small-scale social welfare efforts.
As a graphic design professor at the University of Notre Dame, Sedlack’s academic research is project-oriented and primarily concerned with responsible design for social betterment, an area that most professional firms only address on a limited, pro-bono basis. Specific examples of his creative work that will be on display at the SBMA are projects for clients that are part of the local cultural community (a railroad museum and an art museum) and the ongoing Bon Sel (“Good Salt”) marketing campaign. The award-winning New York Central Railroad Museum poster received three significant commendations, including publication in the 2004 Graphis Annual international review of posters. In addition to the initial visual identity created for the Snite Museum, the 300-page Selected Works catalog designed by Sedlack was meant to extend the museum's reputation to both national and international audiences. The Bon Sel project seeks to help address the challenges of production, packaging, marketing, and distribution of fortified salt in Haiti.
In the classroom Sedlack teaches both undergraduate and graduate design students and his course work includes projects that tackle various social issues such as discrimination, poverty, and voter participation. Due to an interest in continually connecting students to the professional world of design, he fosters this relationship by hosting conferences and visiting speakers, organizing frequent visits to design firms and related organizations, and arranging trips to design shows, exhibits, and portfolio reviews.
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