Typography is a powerful tool for conveying emotions and ideas. Arranging, styling, and structuring words and images together both champions and challenges our understanding of art, artists’ work, and the varied histories of visual cultures. Typography for Art is a practice of building an understanding of art history through the graphic design which supports it.
Mixpantli
Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico and Contemporary Echoes, LACMA, Dec. 12, 2021–Jun. 12, 2022
Typeface: Canela by Miguel Reyes
Additional references:
Florentine Codex (Digital)
Mirror, Mexico, Valley of Mexico, Aztec, 1325–1521
Sandy Rodriguez’s Rainbows, Grizzlies, and Snakes, Oh My! – Conquest to Caging in Los Angeles, 2019
City of Cinema: Paris 1850–1907
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2022 | ISBN: 9781636810218
Designed with Katherine Go
Typeface: Roslindale by David Jonathan Ross
Additional references:
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché, 2018
The Méliès Mystery, 2021
Imagined Fronts: The Great War and Global Media
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2023 | ISBN: 9781636810904
Designed with Michael Price
Typeface: Theinhardt by François Rappo
Additional references:
John Armstrong Turnbull’s Dogfight, 1918–19
Georg Scholz’s Newspaper Carriers (Work Disgraces), 1921
New Objectivity: Modern German Art in the Weimar Republic, 1919–1933
New Objectivity, LACMA, Oct. 4, 2015–Jan. 18, 2016
Typeface: Radikal by Nico Inosanto
Additional references:
Carl Grossberg’s The Paper Machine (Die Papiermaschine), 1934
Max Radler’s Radio Listener, 1930
3D: Double Vision
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2018 | ISBN: 9783791356686
Typeface(s): Girott, F Grotesk, and Fugue by Radim Pesko, and Pitch by Kris Sowersby
Additional references:
The 3 and the D, 2019
Alfons Schilling’s Vision Machines
Dan Graham’s Binocular Zoom, 1969-1970
Moholy-Nagy: Future Present
Future Present, LACMA, Feb. 12–Jun. 18, 2017
Typeface: X by X
Additional references:
Exhibition design by Johnston Marklee
László Moholy-Nagy’s Light Prop for an Electric Stage (Light-Space Modulator), 1930
Los Angeles to New York: Dwan Gallery, 1959–1971
Dwan, LACMA, Mar. 19–Sep. 10, 2017
Typeface: Akzidenz-Grotesk by the H. Berthold AG type foundry
Additional references:
Boxes Invitation, 1964
The Art Gallery in an Era of Mobility, 2017
Art in Los Angeles: Seventeen Artists in the Sixties
LACMA, Published 2081 | ISBN: 9780875871011
Designed by Lou Danziger
Tyoeface: Century Schoolbook by Morris Fuller Benton
Additional references:
Archive(.)org
Ed Ruscha’s Actual Size, 1962
Coded: Art Enters the Computer Age, 1952–1982
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2023 | ISBN: 9781636810805
Coded, LACMA, Feb. 12–Jul. 2, 2023
Designed with Michael Price
Typeface: Rand by François Rappo
Additional references:
Ulla Wiggen’s Trask, 1967
Mathematica: A World of Numbers…and Beyond (1962), A Computer Glossary Poster (1968), Computer House of Cards (1970), and A Computer Perspective (1971) by the Charles and Ray Eames Office
John Altoon
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2014 | ISBN: 9783791353548
Typeface: Shift by Jeremy Mickel
Additional references:
Unearthed: The Rediscovery of John Altoon, 2014
The Cool School, 2008
Light, Space, Surface: Art from Southern California
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2021 | ISBN: 9781942884996
Designed with Katherine Go
Typeface: Sequel Sans by Oliver Jeschke
Additional references:
Helen Pashgian: Visible Invisible, 2024
Light and Space by Nashville Ambient Ensemble, 2023
Networked Catalogue
Networked Catalogue, 2015
Additional references:
A report on the Art and Technology Program of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1967-1971, 1971
A Curatorial Scavenger Hunt: In Search of Art and Technology, 2015
LACMA Art + Technology Lab
Hippie Modernism: The Struggle for Utopia
Designed by Emmet Byrne with Nani Albornoz and Logan Myers
Agency and Urgency: The Medium and Its Message by Lorraine Wild and David Karwan
Additional references:
Designing the Hippie Modernism Exhibition Catalogue, 2015
Outlaws of America: The Underground Press and its Context, 1972
Robert Mapplethorpe: The Perfect Medium
Mapplethorpe, LACMA, Mar. 20–Jul. 31, 2016
Typeface: Bodoni by Giambattista Bodoni
Additional references:
Mapplethorpe: Look at the Pictures, 2016
Peter Saville Record Sleeves (New Order 1987: Substance)
Art in Los Angeles: The Museum as Site–Sixteen projects
LACMA, Published 2081 | ISBN: 087587102X
Designed by April Greiman with Cheri Gray
Tyoeface: Century Schoolbook by Morris Fuller Benton and Helvetica by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffmann
Additional references:
Archive(.)org
Touring “The Garage” with Michael C. McMillen, 2021
Objects of Desire: Photography and the Language of Advertising
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2022 | ISBN: 9781636810539
Typeface: Agipo by Radim Pesko
Additional references:
Pat O’Neill’s Bump City, 1964
Picturing Barbara Kruger, 2015
Sara Cwynar’s Rose Gold, 2017
Rauschenberg: The 1/4 Mile
1/4 Mile, LACMA, Oct. 28, 2018–Jun. 9, 2019
Typeface: FF Bau by Christian Schwartz
Additional references:
Decoding Robert Rauschenberg, 2018
Rauschenberg: The 1/4 Mile walkthrough, 2019
John Divola: As Far as I Could Get
Divola, LACMA, Oct. 6, 2013–Jul. 6, 2014
Typeface: FF Bau by Christian Schwartz
Additional references:
As Far As I Could Get, (R02F33), 10 Seconds, 1996–1997, Pigment Print, 60 × 40 inches © John Divola
Noah Purifoy: Junk Dada
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2023 | ISBN: 9781636810805
Purifoy, LACMA, Jun. 7, 2015–Jan. 3, 2016
Typeface: Druk by Berton Hasebe with Panagiotis Haratzopoulos and Ilya Ruderman
Additional references:
66 Signs of Neon, 1966
63030 Blair Lane, Joshua Tree, California 92252
Christian Marclay: Sound Stories
Marclay, LACMA, Aug. 25–Nov. 11, 2019
Typeface: Circular by Laurenz Brunner
Additional references:
Marclay’s The Clock, 2010
Marclay’s Cyanotypes, 2011
Typography for Art
Presented on the occasion of the SPEEDBOAT Summer Series: City ONE collection, July 31, 2025
Unless otherwise noted, projects designed by davidkarwan.
All rights reserved. All installation photography © 2025 Museum Associates/LACMA