Massachusetts Institute of Technology / MIT Museum
Building N51 265 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139
Open Daily 10am – 5pm / Closed Major Holidays

NOTE: Special schedule on Thursday, May 23. See our Hours & Admission page for details.

The Poster Art of Jacqueline Casey

Charles Ross, Jacqueline Casey

Graphic designers rarely achieve fame or even public recognition for their work, although that work is often highly visible and broad in its impact. Jacqueline S. Casey (1927-1992) created an instantly-recognizable graphic identity for MIT while working in relative anonymity in the MIT Office of Design Services, from the mid-1950s through the mid-1980s. Today, Casey is admired as an innovative designer who broke professional gender barriers and elevated design within the culture of MIT.

Poster design was the ultimate expression of Casey's art. She adopted the new Swiss typefaces Helvetica and Univers almost exclusively, combining typography with bold geometric forms and contrasting planes of color. The precision and clarity of post-war Swiss design, on which her work was based, was tempered with metaphor, witty word puzzles and double meanings appropriate for her academic audience. Using striking colors, humor and modernity, her work enlivened drab walls across the MIT campus for three decades.

On view beginning Thursday, June 7 in the Compton Gallery, MIT Museum, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Building 10, Room 150, Open Daily 10a.m.-5p.m., Free admission

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