Thoughts on Democracy @ The Wolfsonian
| July 09, 2008

If I get the chance to go home, I really want to see the new exhibition at the Wolfsonian titled “Thoughts on Democracy.” The show which opened on July 5th will run through December 7, 2008.

“The Thoughts on Democracy exhibition is comprised of posters created by 60 leading contemporary artists and designers, invited by The Wolfsonian to create a new graphic design inspired by American illustrator Norman Rockwell's “Four Freedoms” posters of 1943, which were recently gifted to the museum by Leonard A. Lauder. Some of the participating artists involved in the project are Neville Brody, Seymour Chwast, Wim Crouwel, Elliott Earls, Richard Tuttle, Lawrence Weiner, Paula Scher, Francesco Vezzoli, Chip Kidd, and Italo Lupi, among others...” —The Wolfsonian

Here are some examples from the show:


by Winterhouse


by The Map Office


by Kate Spade


by Ellen Lupton


by R.O. Blechman

The posters can be viewed as small thumbnails on a recent Wolfsonian brochure. And ofcourse there is flickr (where I found all images seen here).

But one my favorite part of the Wolfsonian’s advertising campaign is seeing a giant Elliott Earls poster plastered to a wall (right next to Nordstrom) in Aventura mall.



For the exhibition Chip Kidd designed four posters for a series with the tagline “Freedom isn’t free, this is abuse of the Freedom of Want.” They can all be seen on his blog Good is Dead.

Paul Scher also designed four posters which are described in detail on Pentagram’s blog.

And for a bit more reading, Rockwell’s Four Freedoms poster series is part of the American Treasures of the Library of Congress


credit for the top poster Want: designed by Daniel Arsham.

Link:  and a review from The New York Times

Tags:  democracy, graphic design, posters, wolfsonian

Topic: Exhibitions