Installation view of title wall for the exhibition Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects

Many of the works featured in the exhibition Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects are represented on the title wall wallpaper as small, abstract pixel icons. Design Intern YooIn Cho and I created icons for nearly every work, and then arranged them into an all-over pattern to lead people to the Talk to Me galleries. Some of the icons closely resembled objects on view, while others more abstractly represented some of the ideas from the show.

Drawing the icons was super fun, and the idea was to make a whole bunch of them and not think about it too hard or second guess ourselves. Some of the icons that made their way into the design weren’t even for objects in the show—aviator sunglasses, a blimp, a hot dog, a frog. These were hidden symbols requested by Paola Antonelli and Kate Carmody for good luck, or represented inside jokes as we were working on the show. I do like how the overall design of the show came together in the end as a cohesive whole, with pixels linking them together—QR codes on the labels, pixel typefaces used in the labels and wall texts, and gigantic pixel platforms and shelving systems on which the works were placed.

Take a look at the icon gallery and the objects from which we drew inspiration below.

Talk to Me: Design and the Communication between People and Objects closes on November 7.

See more of the exhibition’s graphic design at MoMA.org/designstudio.