Summer Picnic Posters – Herman Miller’s Steve Frykholm
Before summer comes to a close and while corn season is still in full swing it seems appropriate to highlight these amazing posters designed by Steve Frykholm for Herman Miller's summer company picnics. They are an annual tradition and so beautiful.
Herman Miller’s Vice President of Creative Design, Steve Frykholm, is celebrating 45 years as their graphic designer extraordinaire. In 1970 his first assignment on the job, after graduating from Cranbrook Academy of Art, was to design the poster for the Herman Miller company picnic!
One of Steve’s favourites is the 1983 Ice Cream Cone Poster (right). Steve deconstructed the type and each letter becomes like a small chip of chocolate in the ice cream.
Little did Steve know that the resulting poster from 1970 (Sweet Corn Festival) would spark an ambitious series that has since made its way into countless museum collections, including the MoMA in New York.
When asked if he was drawn to Herman Miller because of its "design DNA" Steve said that when he first got to Cranbrook, he didn’t know about Herman Miller. But the department was made up of graphic designers, product designers, environmental designers and they would all go over to the annual sale at Herman Miller and come back to school with these treasures—an Eames chair or some Girard fabric, and that was his first awareness of this little company out in Zeeland, Michigan.
Steve believes that a good poster—a poster that is really communicating an idea—is still relevant. There are so many different kinds of posters: informational posters, promotional posters and commemorative posters. A poster is really nothing more than a postage stamp, except big. And he thinks posters should be large. They should be at least 24 x 36 inches, if not larger.
Cherry pie and a seven layer salad were the inspiration for these two posters.
To commemorate 45 years of amazing picnic posters Herman Miller is reprinting 20 of these tour de forces of graphic design.
Now everyone asks, "what is he going to do this year?" Watch a video of Steve Frykholm talking about his creative process at Herman Miller's Why Magazine.
Herman Miller’s Vice President of Creative Design, Steve Frykholm, is celebrating 45 years as their graphic designer extraordinaire. In 1970 his first assignment on the job, after graduating from Cranbrook Academy of Art, was to design the poster for the Herman Miller company picnic!
One of Steve’s favourites is the 1983 Ice Cream Cone Poster (right). Steve deconstructed the type and each letter becomes like a small chip of chocolate in the ice cream.Little did Steve know that the resulting poster from 1970 (Sweet Corn Festival) would spark an ambitious series that has since made its way into countless museum collections, including the MoMA in New York.
When asked if he was drawn to Herman Miller because of its "design DNA" Steve said that when he first got to Cranbrook, he didn’t know about Herman Miller. But the department was made up of graphic designers, product designers, environmental designers and they would all go over to the annual sale at Herman Miller and come back to school with these treasures—an Eames chair or some Girard fabric, and that was his first awareness of this little company out in Zeeland, Michigan.
Steve believes that a good poster—a poster that is really communicating an idea—is still relevant. There are so many different kinds of posters: informational posters, promotional posters and commemorative posters. A poster is really nothing more than a postage stamp, except big. And he thinks posters should be large. They should be at least 24 x 36 inches, if not larger.
Cherry pie and a seven layer salad were the inspiration for these two posters.To commemorate 45 years of amazing picnic posters Herman Miller is reprinting 20 of these tour de forces of graphic design.
Now everyone asks, "what is he going to do this year?" Watch a video of Steve Frykholm talking about his creative process at Herman Miller's Why Magazine.