Columbus, Indiana holds a rare place in the history of American Modernism. Emerging architects and designers practiced in this town doing churches, schools, banks, factories, post offices, fire stations, parks, public art installations, furniture, and corporate identity. Both Saarinens, a young IM Pei, Henry Moore, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Alexander Girard, George Nelson, the Eames, Ivan Chermayeff, Paul Rand and many more all left masterpieces behind in southern Indiana. To reclaim and reinvigorate the Columbus place in todays modern design discourse, Thirst designed the identity, environmental, and collateral materials for the 2016 Symposium and 2017 Biennial Exhibition. The Thirst design consciously leverages the playful spirit of Paul Rand’s Dancing C identity for Columbus designed in 1973 while leveraging a move away from legibility to recognition.
- Rick Valicenti
- Taek Hyun Kim
