The Philadelphia Museum of Art presents an exhibition celebrating the achievements of designer and author Bruce Mau. Opening November 21 and on until April 3, Work on What You Love: Bruce Mau Rethinking Design encompasses a wide range of innovative work, from book and branding designs to strategies for countries, corporations and universities, as well as collaborations with filmmakers, artists and writers.
It is the first exhibition to explore Mau’s influential design thinking, focusing primarily on the last ten years and including current projects along with others based on his work as creative director of Bruce Mau Design (1985-2010). In conjunction with the exhibition, Collab, the Museum’s friends group for modern and contemporary design, are presenting Mau with its Design Excellence Award.
The exhibition focuses on key design principles that Mau created for his consultancy, Massive Change Network, which he founded in 2010. These principles, twenty-four in total, offer a kind of working toolbox, intended to demonstrate the power of design to generate positive change in any arena. Several are examined in the exhibition, illuminating Mau’s thinking in the form of graphics, objects, videos, and digital interactives.
In conjunction with the exhibition, Mau will demonstrate his design thinking in workshops centered on the Massive Change principles, offered by the Museum in collaboration with Next City, and partnering with cultural organizations including Fleisher Art Memorial, Penn Praxis at the University of Pennsylvania School of Design, and Taller Puertorriqueño.
In addition, the exhibition will inspire the Museum’s annual Collab Student Design Competition, challenging college students to create a personal brand identity in response to Work on What You Love. Judges for this year’s competition include Alan Jacobson, Founder of Ex:it Design Strategy and J2 Design Partnership; Alina Wheeler, author of Designing Brand Identity and design coach; Jedd Davis, Chief Operating Officer at Publicis Heath Media; Josh Goldblum, Bluecadet’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer; and Ken Carbone, Co-Founder of Carbone Smolan Agency in New York City. Chair is Dr. Roberta Gruber of the Collab Board.
The Bruce Mau exhibition curator is Kathryn Bloom Hiesinger, The J. Mahlon Buck, Jr. Family Senior Curator European Decorative Arts after 1700, while the exhibition is made possible by Lisa S. Roberts and David W. Seltzer with additional support is provided by Collab.
