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Melissa Gorman

Design & Illustration
  • Creative Direction & Design
  • Illustration
  • About
  • Shop

Zulu Time

Layered, off-kilter, atypical: Some of the words Kambui Olujimi used to describe his vision of a catalog to commemorate his solo exhibition, Zulu Time, at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art.

Early in the process, Kambui shared research images that had inspired him while creating the works for the exhibition. Most were sourced from the Internet, and covered a wide variety of topics from icebergs to time-clocks to public housing.

Rather than obscure the idea of using research images as part of the artistic process, we included it as a visual footnote to the formally presented work. Floating beneath essays and commentary, cyan-tinted photographic images tell a parallel story of Zulu Time, giving the reader a glimpse into the inner world of Olujimi’s process, and an invitation to ask questions and make connections they might not otherwise discover.

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Art Direction, Design, Print Production

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Maison

Maison is an Upper East Side members’ club designed for women to make time for themselves. Founded by Ashley Wu as a response to the lack of ‘third spaces’ in the neighborhood, she knew there were other ambitious mothers searching for a similar place, too. Somewhere that wasn’t about adding to a long list of obligations by joining, but a place that was about sharing a respite with other likeminded people. Somewhere to reconnect, recharge, and relax in a stimulating, beautiful space close to home.

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Designed at Love & War
Role: Creative direction, Visual identity
Design support: Soomin Cha, Katie Waxtel
Interior Photos: Courtesy of Nicole Franzen

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Mi Selva

Mi Selva is a book created in collaboration with artist Tatiana Arocha as a response to her experience at LABVerde, a residency in the Brazilian rainforest. A native of Colombia, Arocha’s work is rooted in her own complex relationship to the bio-political and vulnerable landscapes she grew up exploring. A departure from her labor-intensive, large-format work, Mi Selva offers an intimate, emotional view into the artist’s experience and history.

24 pages plus loose print, hand-bound, 2-color risograph publication. Edition of 50.

Available in the shop.

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Design, Printing, Production

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Olafur Eliasson: Your colour memory

Your colour memory documents the immersive work by the artist Olafur Eliasson, as installed at Arcadia University Art Gallery. Part-catalog, part-historical research document, the book takes the reader through a graphic representation of the artist's work – a room of slowly-shifting colored panels meant to expose the concepts of color memories, after-images, and shifts in optical perception.

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Art Direction, Design, Print Production

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Martha

Inspired by its fusion menu and communal attitude, a Catholic-sainted bird and a Japanese good luck cat coexist as the unofficial mascots of Martha – a neighborhood restaurant serving quirky American & Asian comfort food and cocktails.

The eclectic, experimental vibe of the restaurant is expressed through hand-drawn logos and playful, ingredient-inspired illustrations that adorn the menus, postcards, and social media images, along with bold, punchy photography of the colorfully-designed dishes.

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Creative Direction, Naming, Visual Identity, Illustration, Interior Styling, Photography, Menu Development

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Great Island Inn

Visual identity, collateral, and website for an apartment-style inn located in the tiny town of New Castle, NH. The owners transformed an 1820 home into six studio apartments with a modern-classic style. The identity compliments the established aesthetic – taking cues from 1960s minimalism, old-school prep, and the color palette of the rugged New Hampshire Seacoast.

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Visual Identity, Design

 

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The Brakeman

The Brakeman is an American Beer Hall by NoHo Hospitality, located in Downtown Detroit in the Shinola Hotel. Built from the ground up, the building echoes an old auto garage, and features a token-only currency system dispensed through a vintage-styled ticket booth.

Starting with the building itself as an object to design against, we drew inspiration from the aesthetics of utility, American workwear, and the role of The Brakeman in railroad culture and folklore.

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Designed at Love & War
Role: Creative direction, Visual identity
Designer: Youshin Song
Illustration: Ilana Blady

Photos: Courtesy of Bedrock Detroit, NoHo Hospitality, Motown Sign Co, and Elizabeth Moroz

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Sun Pictures

Artist book to accompany Richard Torchia's exhibition Sun Pictures & Other Broken Images, at The Print Center, Philadelphia. Pocket-sized, with letterpress cover. 

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Design

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Is Your Home Making You Sick?

As a Center for Urban Pedagogy Making Policy Public (MPP) fellow, I was paired with WEACT for Environmental Justice to create a fold-out poster to help educate people about their rights as renters when it comes to toxic hazards in the home. The project was a year-long collaboration between myself, CUP, and WEACT.

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Art Direction, Design, Illustration

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The Brooklyn Sandwich Society

A seasonal sandwich shop by day, restaurant by night – BKSS served high-end, bespoke sandwiches and small plates using all-local ingredients, with a mission to offer the best of farm-to-table cooking at an affordable price point. 

The identity riffs on the tongue-in-cheek nature of the name – an exclusive club open to everyone. Taking cues from heraldry, secret societies, and the local grocer, the logotype and was created from an old type specimen sheet discovered during the research phase, redrawn for the logo, and subsequently turned into a working typeface with the help of Derek Munn.

Postcards, buttons, and menus freely sample and repurpose old engravings to create a mashup of sandwich-themed insignias and icons. 

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Creative Direction, Visual Identity, Design

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Language Rights are Civil Rights!

As a Center for Urban Pedagogy Public Access Design fellow, I was paired with Legal Services NYC to visualize a tool to help Limited English Speakers understand their rights when it came to interpreter services within bureaucratic systems. We created a fold-out pocket guide that also served as a way to communicate their needs and rights – especially for those who had trouble speaking English.

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Art Direction, Design, Illustration

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Taken With Time

Identity design, catalog, invitation, and brochure for an exhibition of contemporary photographers making camera obscura images, at The Print Center, PA. Curious visitors can experiment at home with this optical technique: The takeaway brochure folds into a portable pinhole viewer, with instructions for use. 

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Art Direction, Design, Exhibition Identity

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Eat in Season

A book celebrating seasonal produce. Each season highlights fruits and vegetables available at farmer's markets on the east coast through illustrations, personal notes, and simple recipes.

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Art Direction, Illustration, Design, Writing

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Street Plants

Street Plants is a book of drawings that examines the co-mingling of weeds, cultivated plants, and trash through an affectionate perspective.

With two poems and an anecdotal field guide by Sophia Warsh.

16 pages, hand-bound, 3-color risograph publication. First edition of 100.

Available in the shop.

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Art Direction, Design, Illustration

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D Magazine

A bi-annual journal about the practice of drawing. Curated and edited by Yane Calovski, D examines this most fundamental medium through essays and images from artists and writers from around the world.

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Art Direction, Design

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Paula Winokur

Oversized brochure for the ceramics artist Paula Winokur's solo exhibition at Arcadia University Art Gallery.

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Art Direction, Design

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ZTCover_Green2.jpg
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Zulu Time
MaisonCard_CVR.jpg
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Maison
MiSelva_Cvr.jpg
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Mi Selva
YCM_coverPurp.jpg
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Olafur Eliasson: Your colour memory
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Martha
GII_card2.jpg
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Great Island Inn
BrakemanCVR.gif
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The Brakeman
SunPics_Cover.jpg
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Sun Pictures
MPP_Cover_SS.jpg
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Is Your Home Making You Sick?
BKSS_card2.jpg
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The Brooklyn Sandwich Society
LanguageRights.jpg
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Language Rights are Civil Rights!
TWTcover.jpg
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Taken With Time
EIS_fallheader.jpg
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Eat in Season
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5
Street Plants
Dcvrs.jpg
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D Magazine
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Paula Winokur: Geological Sites

© 2024 Melissa Gorman