The Newport Art Museum in Newport, Rhode Island will exhibit the work of Malcolm Grear Designers in an exhibition titled “Making a Mark: The Art of Creating a Visual Identity” from May 19 to August 26, 2012.

"Every organization has an identity, if not by plan, then by default," says Malcolm Grear, who has spent over half a century as a design educator and innovator in the field of visual communication. His Providence-based design firm, Malcolm Grear Designers, is a leader in two and three-dimensional design and is responsible for the Newport Art Museum's new visual identity. “Making a Mark” explores the process of designing visual identities that are unique, timeless, memorable, and gestalt.

Malcolm Grear Designers recently designed the visual identity for the Newport Art Museum and is currently working on new designs for the exterior wayfinding system and website.

Currently on view at BigTown Gallery in Rochester, Vermont is the exhibition titled Artist Community: Rhode Island. For the gallery, it is the first in a series of mixed media group exhibitions that explore the artwork and relationships of artists from a local, creative community. The artists of this exhibition have had some relationship to Providence, Rhode Island and many of the artists were either friends, fellow students or teachers, or co-workers.

The exhibition will feature pieces by Stephan Brigidi, Harry Callahan, Dale Chihuly, Ruth Dealy, Richard Fleischner, Malcolm Grear, Bunny Harvey, David Macaulay, Aaron Siskind, Dieter Roth, Hugh Townley, John Udvardy. The exhibition is on display from May 2 through June 10. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 5 from 5 to 7pm. For directions and more information about the gallery visit their website.

Malcolm Grear will exhibit several works from his personal art collection including a piece he designed for musician Scott Hamilton. For several years, Malcolm Grear Designers has worked with BigTown Gallery designing its visual identity, exhibition invitations, and poster.

Continuing its plan to improve campus facilities, Brown University recently put the finishing touches on a new athletic complex. Located on Hope Street and Lloyd Avenue and designed to fit in with the surrounding architecture, the complex is comprised of three distinct centers.

The Nelson Fitness Center, which faces Hope Street, contains dance and fitness studios and a spacious fitness loft with stunning views of the campus. Facing the all purpose playing fields is the David J. Zucconi '55 Varsity Strength and Conditioning Center. In between these two wings is the Katherine Moran Coleman Aquatics Center. The Ittleson Quadrangle, a new, central green space, provides a natural link between the various athletic facilities.

The Aquatics Center houses a 56 meter swimming pool capable of allowing three-meter diving. The pool, intended for competition and recreational use, is bordered on one side with seating for 800 spectators. In a press release by Brown University, Michael Goldberger, director of athletics announced, “This magnificent new facility will give Brown’s varsity swimming, diving and water polo teams one of the league’s best venues for competition and training.”

On the roof of the Aquatics Center are 168 solar panels that will generate all electricity for the building. The million gallon pool will be heated with thermal energy. The center is Rhode Island's first hybrid (heat and power) solar installation, the largest one in the nation, and the first for a college campus.

Brown University Facilities Management asked Malcolm Grear Designers to design the exterior and interior wayfinding signage and donor recognition system for the new complex.

Exterior and Interior Wayfinding, Donor Recognition

The Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles recently moved into the Aime J. Forand Building in Cranston. The 70,000 square foot headquarters replace the previous and "temporary" DMV that was located in Pawtucket. The new DMV has twenty-eight license and registration counters, a cafe, and provides generous open spaces.

The Aime J. Forand Building was repurposed and renovated by Lerner, Ladds Bartels Architects and Dimeo Construction. Malcolm Grear Designers developed the exterior and interior wayfinding system for the building.

Place Recognition

The InterContinental Hotel Boston commissioned Malcolm Grear Designers to design three historical markers to be located on Boston's Waterfront. With numerous historical sites in the vicinity, the markers were designed to encourage further investigation into the local history.

The markers' shape is a reference to the architectural form of the hotel, which completed in 2008, is located approximately on the same site of the Boston Tea Party in 1775. The history of Boston's Waterfront was an inspiration for the hotel's architect who envisioned the building's form to be reminiscent of a Yankee Clipper ship, a cargo vessel that greatly added to the prosperity of Boston and southern New England.

Donor Recognition

Located in downtown Hartford, the Connecticut Science Center includes 150 exhibits housed in 10 theme based galleries. The exhibits are hands-on learning experiences with the goal of promoting science literacy.

Malcolm Grear Designers was hired to develop an interior donor recognition system for the new building. The main donor wall includes the names of all the donors silk-screened on a large central glass wall. The wall becomes frosted when viewed from the front and appears clear when viewed at an angle. The recognition system features several levels of signs for galleries, theater, café, etc.

Signs/Wayfinding, Print/Publications, Place/Recognition

Continuing its work with the Nature Conservancy of Rhode Island, Malcolm Grear Designers designed interior exhibit panels, the exterior building identification sign, donor recognition for the education center, the quarterly newsletter, and guides to trails. In addition, MGD designed the informational panels at the Goosewing Beach preserve manager's shack.

The Pulitzer Prizes named Forrest Gander one of two finalists for its award in poetry for 2012. Gander's latest book titled Core Samples From the World was designed by Malcolm Grear Designers. The book is a compilation of poetry, photographs, and haibun (a Japanese form of essay-poem).

While collaborating with photographers Raymond Meeks, Graciela Iturbide, and Lucas Foglia, Gander takes the reader to various countries to view familiar and foreign environments and to explore relationships. Donald Revell of the The Colorado Review writes “Gander's sharp sense of place has made him the most earthly of our avant-garde, the best geographer of fleshly sites since Olson.”

Gander has degrees in geology and English literature. His recent books include As a Friend, Eye Against Eye, and Firefly Under the Tongue: Selected Poems of Coral Bracho. He has received fellowships from the United States Artists Rockefeller Fellow, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Guggenheim, Howard, and Whiting Foundations. He is currently a professor of Creative Writing and Comparative Literature at Brown University.

Lucas Foglia will exhibit his first solo exhibition at the David Winton Bell Gallery at Brown University starting on March 31 and ending May 27. The exhibition titled Lucas Foglia: A Natural Order features documentary photographs of small, rural communities in the southeastern United States.

Perhaps from a downturn in the U.S. economy, there has been renewed interest in self sustainability. Workshops, camps, and communities are popping up promising to teach participants how to reunite with the Earth and our hunter/gatherer instincts. Desiring to leave modern conveniences behind and to be a part of a small community, many people are attending.

After graduating from Brown University in 2005, Foglia spent the next few years documenting some of these participants in Virgina, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia. He visited the "rewilding" community of Wildroots Earthskill Homestead in western North Carolina where the participants learn to free themselves from "human domestication" and return to a more natural human state. Participants learn primitive skills such as shelter building, timber framing, hide tanning, wild food foraging, and herbal medicine. He also visited the Christian based community of Russell Creek Community in Tennessee where members simply desire a return to more simplistic and humble lives.

In addition to this collection of work, Foglia will also exhibit photographs from his latest series in progress titled Front Country. Front Country explores mining towns, ranching operations, and farming communities in western United States. The title refers to the uneasy crossover from cities to the rural land. His images explore the struggle of families trying to make a living in the face of industries that strip the land of natural resources, such as coal, natural gas, oil, and gold.

The exhibition coincides with several lectures and talks at Brown University. Poet and Brown professor Forest Gander will read from Foglia's interviews for A Natural Order on Thursday April 5 in the List Art Center Auditorium. On Monday April 9, Will Allen will discuss the "Good Food Revolution" and on Friday April 13, nationally recognized storyteller Doug Elliott will present "Rewilding, Weeds, and Wildwoods Wisdom: Living off the Land in a Changing World." Elliot, who introduced Foglia to some of his subjects, will recount some of the stories of the people in Foglia's photographs. Learn more through Brown University's press release.

Continuing its long-standing relationship with the David Winton Bell Gallery, Malcolm Grear Designers created the exhibition brochure, invitation, installation graphics, exterior sign, and banner for the exhibition.

Last year, Rhode Island moved the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) into a renovated building. The new DMV has additional license and registration counters, a cafe, generous open spaces, and the promise of a short wait. But if you must wait, now visitors can view artwork to pass the time.

Recently, artist Erik Carlson installed a unique, permanent video installation along the main corridor of the DMV. Titled "In Passing", the installation consists of video screens on both sides of the corridor that play short 1-2 minute videos of scenes from Rhode Island's over 6,400 miles of public roadways. From urban to rural settings, crowded roads to peaceful back roads, the artwork uses slow motion video to create a dreamlike state that prompts a viewer to slow down and take a closer look at the state's unique landscapes. In fact, the artwork is interactive. The installation will detect the presence of a viewer and provide freeze frames for a viewer to further inspect a landscape, before the video continues after a few moments.

Rhode Island Public Radio's "Artscape" program created a report on the installation and several other public art installations throughout the state. If you would like to see videos from the installation, you may view them through Carlson's website.

The DMV building renovation was designed by Lerner, Ladds + Bartels Architects. Malcolm Grear Designers developed the exterior and interior wayfinding system for the building and the exterior supergraphic panels.