SEGD (the Society for Experiential Graphic Design), a multidisciplinary global community of professionals, has chosen a class of Fellows for the first time in its 49-year history. The organisation established the Fellow Award in 1987 and celebrates the profession’s laureates each year: people who have created a body of work and demonstrated design leadership to the highest standard in the sector.
Now, SEGD presents the class of 2022 Fellows: Julie Beeler, Michael Gericke, Alan Jacobson, and Brad Johnson. The four Fellows will be in good company with the existing 44 SEGD Fellows, a group which includes leaders in the industry such as Sylvia Harris, Ed Schlossberg, Paula Scher, Massimo Vignelli, Deborah Sussman, Lance Wyman and Denise Scott Brown.
“These individuals’ accomplishments and contributions to the practice and advancement of experiential graphic design exemplify the highest ideas in uniquely different aspects of practice and leadership,” says SEGD Fellow Committee Chair Michael Reed, FSEGD.
“Today’s class of Fellows represent the breadth and depth of our growing community.”
Meet the Fellows
The new Fellows will be celebrated on 18 June during the 2022 SEGD conference in Portland, Oregon.
Michael Gericke
Michael Gericke joined Pentagram in New York in 1985, where he soon rose to the position of partner. Over 35 years later, he has built a reputation for creating images and programs celebrating and portraying the essential qualities of the place or experience he represents.
While at Pentagram he has worked on projects such as the 1994 FIFA World Cup, Rockefeller Center and its Rainbow Room, MIT’s “One Laptop per Child,” 21st Century Fox, the National Gallery of Art, the Guggenheim Museum – Abu Dhabi, the Arizona Cardinals NFL Stadium, Cornell University’s Tech District, and Manhattan’s Ground Zero and One World Trade Center.
Gericke is also the author of Graphic Life, a 520-page monograph that presents his design work as a celebration of places, storytelling, and symbol making.
Talking about SEGD he says: “It’s enriched me in so many different ways. It’s a community, it’s giving, it’s personal, it’s educational, and it’s incredibly inspirational.”
Julie Beeler & Brad Johnson
Julie Beeler and Brad Johnson started Second Story in Portland in 1997, building on their passion for design and digital storytelling. Over the following two decades, they became leaders in an emerging design field, seamlessly integrating digital into physical environments.
Second Story’s clients have included the National Archives and the Library of Congress, the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights (Atlanta, GA – SEGD Merit Award 2016) and experiences for the World of Coca-Cola and the University of Oregon.
The firm has won many awards, including being an honoree for the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, along with recognitions from Time magazine, Sundance, SXSW, AIGA, Communication Arts, Core77, HOW, IxDA, Museums and the Web, Webby, TEA, the American Association of Museums and PRINT.
The pair have created strong partnerships with exhibition and experience design firms in the SEGD community throughout their careers. Their unique approach to storytelling through interactive media has dramatically impacted how people see, feel, and participate in stories across cultural institutions and with brands.
Alan Jacobson
Jacobson is the founder and CEO of Exit Design and J2 in Philadelphia. Experiential design and brand strategy inform his practice and serve as keystones in his own research and passion for design.
His career in the industry began with his work rebranding his family’s sign shop, growing it into an 80-person design/build EGD studio named AGS. In 2001, he also founded Exit Design with Ellen Taylor. Later, he partnered with his son Brian, a graphic designer, to found J2, a brand strategy and visual identity firm. Their major projects include the University of Pennsylvania, Kimmel Cultural Center, Philadelphia Mural Arts, Union Square San Francisco, and the Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge Shared Path.
Jacobson is known for giving back. He has worked with genocide survivors in Rwanda and volunteered his time to support SEGD and help it grow.
The 2022 SEGD Global Design Awards will also be revealed at this year’s conference. Winners of the SEGD 2021 Global Design Awards included Hyde Park Barracks Museum, The Ian Potter Southbank Centre, and the Western Australian Museum.
