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.
Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudō & NUNO
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2026 | ISBN: 9781636811727 (special edition) | ISBN: 9781636812328 (standard edition)
Typeface: Reply by François Rappo
Additional references:
NUNO
Textile Alchemy: The Art of Reiko Sudō and Nuno Showcases 40 Years of the Artist’s Work
TAKISEISI
MORIGUCHI Kunihiko: Yuzen / Design – Crossroads of Creativity
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
Typefaces: Neuzeit Grotesk by Wilhelm Pischner (with italics later expanded by Arthur Ritzel) and Zurich BT by by Adrian Frutiger
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
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
Colossal Characters: Oldenburg and Typography
All Impossible Deeds: A Report on the LACMA Art + Technology Lab, 2014–2025
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2026 | ISBN: 9781636811611
Typeface: Programme by Maximage
Additional references:
LACMA Art + Technology Lab
Hyundai Artlab
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)
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
Betye Saar: Call and Response
LACMA/DelMonico Books, Published 2019 | ISBN: 9783791358789
Designed with Katherine Go
Typefaces: Sentinel and and Tungsten by Jonathan Hoefler and Tobias Frere-Jones
Additional references:
How to Read “Betye Saar: Call and Response”
Betye Saar: Taking Care of Business | Art + Film
Betye Saar, Artist Who Upended Black Stereotypes, Dies at 99
The David Geffen Galleries
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), opened 2026
Typefaces: LACMA Bold developed in collaboration with conceptual artist John Baldessari and 2 × 4, and Akzidenz-Grotesk by Günter Gerhard Lange, Berthold Design Studio
Wander collaborated with Green Dragon Office (Lorraine Wild and Xiaoqing Wang with Thomas L. Huang)
Additional references:
Daring and Dazzling, a New LACMA Floats Above Los Angeles
Wander: Exploring LACMA’s David Geffen Galleries
Selected Collaborations with Rowan Smith
No Everything, solo exhibition at WHATIFTHEWORLD/ GALLERY, Jul. 7–Aug. 23, 2014
Typefaces: Venus by the Bauer Type Foundry and Kis by Nicholas Kis
Mirage Blue by Wendy Fredriksson and Rowan Smith, video installation at WHATIFTHEWORLD/ GALLERY, Apr. 5–Apr. 22, 2025
Typeface: Futura Condensed by Edwin W. Shaar
Various album covers Dots& Waves by MEMORIEZ, released Feb. 9, 2024
Typeface: Futura by Paul Renner and Programme Primitiv by Maximage
Ubuhle bub’ hlungu by DEAD SYMBOLS, released Sep. 26, 2025
Typeface: Wonk by David Karwan
Typography for Art
Presented on the occasion of the SPEEDBOAT Summer Series: City ONE collection, July 31, 2025 (Los Angeles)
Presented at Cape Town Creative Academy, August 14, 2026 (Cape Town)
Unless otherwise noted, projects designed by davidkarwan.
All rights reserved. All installation photography © 2026 Museum Associates/LACMA