Exhibition, Identity

Faith Ringgold: American People at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago surveyed Ringgold’s sixty-year, multi-media career. The identity design developed for this exhibition took pattern and palette cues from Ringgold’s prolific quilting practice, and inspiration for stark contrast and bold lettering from her visual language of activism threaded throughout her works. 

One of the highlights of this exhibition’s graphics is the bespoke wallpaper informed by Ringgold’s Windows of the Wedding series, which creates an immersive entry moment for the exhibition. On the facing wall, a Supergraphic of Ringgold’s name was typeset in one of the more “dashed” variations of MCA’s typeface in a nod to her quilting practice. 

Inside the exhibition, each of the vaulted galleries were painted with a variation on the identity’s palette, resulting in a holistic experience through visual touchpoints from the outside in. 

The MCA Creative Studio won an AIGA 365 award in Environmental / Experiential Design for our work on this exhibition. 

Made with the MCA Creative Studio

Director of Creative: Suraiya Nathani Hossain
Creative Producer: Drew Colglazier
Senior Graphic Designer: Brian Hedrick
Senior Production Designer: Katie Leonard


Photography credits: Shelby Ragsdale

All photos: Installation view, Faith Ringgold: American People, MCA Chicago. November 18, 2023 – February 25, 2024. Photo: Shelby Ragsdale, © MCA Chicago.