Maryland Institute College of Art – Website
Globe at MICA
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Client
Globe, Maryland Institute College of Art
Role
Visual Design, IA, UX/UI
Year
2012–2017, Produced at Drexler
Awards
Commarts Award of Excellence 2018, Site Inspire
Design Team
Kailie Parrish, Mike McNeive, Matt Coleman
When Globe Poster Printing Corporation, one of the nation’s largest showcard printing companies of the 20th century, closed up shop in 2011, The Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) became the new home for Globe’s wealth of wood type, letterpress cuts, posters and ephemera.
With the goal celebrating and preserving Globe’s work for future generations, Globe and MICA came to Drexler to build a website to showcase the printings company’s iconic pieces. It was a dream to work behind the scenes and design a digital archive for a place I had learned so much from as a student.
Background
Founded in 1929, Globe Poster in Baltimore was one of the nation’s largest showcard printing companies. For over 80 years, Globe created posters for legends like James Brown, Tina Turner, the Beach Boys and more. With demand for posters dwindling in the digital age, brothers and owners, Bob, Frank and Joe Cicero Jr., decided to close in late 2010.
I had been fortunate to witness the world that was once Globe with a letterpress class just before its closure. By my senior year, I, along with dozens of other classmates, teachers and Baltimoreans, formed a grassroots campaign called “Friends of Globe” that aimed to bring the collection to MICA. It’s humbling to see Globe’s legacy still alive as a working press, teaching tool, and source for research at my alma mater.
Globe Style
A Globe poster makes you look, with its bright inks and bold, hand-lettered type that shakes and shimmies. It was our job to figure out when to embrace the style and when to pull back.
For the site, we developed a DayGlo color palette and utilized actual Globe type where we could. Every headline on the site was hand printed and digitally scanned. The original owner, Harry Knorr, created drool-worthy hand lettering and reusable visual library of blocks that shouted phrases like “Live!” and “In Person!” which became a source of delight for introducing parts of the collection.
Once arriving in the collection, we pair back most of the elements to let the artifacts encapsulate the viewer without distraction.
Sorting the archive
I was lucky to go behind the scenes and witness the mountains of type, posters and sketches that now occupied MICA’s print studio. I sat with Globe coordinators, Mary Mashburn and Allison Fisher, as we sifted through our favorite pieces to be included on the website. We identified the main categories of Ephemera, Image Cuts, Tools, etc and aimed to find posters with as many building blocks to showcase what we call “Sets.” MICA hired an archivist to photograph each of the selected pieces while I worked on the IA for the collection on the site.
The Collection
The initial proposal for the website began in 2012. Due to the massive archiving effort involved at MICA, the project stalled many times. It went through gradual redesigns and eventually an overhaul to the code to bring it to standard web practices. It officially launched in February 2017 and I couldn’t be more proud of where Globe at MICA is today.
