Recommended Sites
It’s not so hard for me to imagine a future in which some of our best contemporary signage systems (again, only one small example of graphic design in our contemporary world) are on display in a museum. Many of the artists whose work is now on display in the newly-opened American Sign Museum here in Cincinnati surely never intended their work to be found years later in a museum setting; yet, here it is, and very rightfully so. The American Sign Museum has an impressive display of signs spanning the history of the craft, most of which were originally commercial designs that we now appreciate for their ingenious use of the technology of the times, such as a sign for Kelly Springfield Tires with a system of cast glass screw-in plugs, or their beautiful shapes and forms, such as the large collection of proposals by the Beverly Sign company featuring incredible custom lettering.
I also imagine the same future museum displaying websites, graphical user interfaces, books and magazines: contemporary non-art objects we touch every day that will someday be valued for their aesthetic beauty and innovative use of technology. We may not know what the wine of the future will be, but I have no doubt there will be designers making crystal goblets to serve it.