Jacqueline CaseyWoman in a Man’s World

“ Some of the most elegant posters in America... Her sense of proportion is at once percise and measured, orga nic and humane.”

Joseph P. Ansell, chair of the Visual Arts Department at Otterbein College in Westerville

Jacqueline S.Casey’s work is probably the work you’venever heard of. Her posters will ring a bell when you see them, but neither a name or face will register in your mind. It was at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she de-signed dozens upon dozens of posters to promote events for the college, from concerts, to seminars, and even CD releases. She was a woman in a man’s world, not only in the publications office, but also in the MIT community that served as her clientele.

Even given her contribu-tions, few people can put a finger on just who she is, as her work has been understandably swept under the carpet by that of her male collegues. Despite this, Casey is no doubt the foremost practitioner of the International Style. While men like Josef Muller-Brockman have mastered the style, it is she who has unlocked its true potential as a design methodology.

“ Some of the most elegant posters in America... Her sense of proportion is at once percise and measured, orga nic and humane.”

Jacqueline Casey was born in Quincy, Mass. on April 20, 1927. She train d at MassArt for her degrees in fashion design and illustration, before moving on to work in advertisment, interior decoration and trade publication. Her talents were recognized by the Office of Publications at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-nology, in 1955, where she was placed in charge of designing posters for the college’s summer program.

Casey worked alongside MurielCooper, the then Design Director.In her role as Director of DesignServices, it was Casey’s job topublicize exhibtions organized bythe MIT Committee on the VisualArts. When Cooper left to join the MIT faculty in 1972, Casey tookover as Design Director. Her workhas been exhibited in one-womanshows at multiple venues, suchas the MIT Hayden CorridorGallery (1972. 1979. 1983, 1984),Cooper Union (1989) and MassArt (1989). She also gavelectures at multiple museumsand schools. After 30 years ofadorning the bland walls of MIT with her stunning, informative posters, Casey passed away in 1991.

The Moon Show, 1969

MIT Open House 4 13 74, 1974

My job is

a con

stant

learni

ng ex

perien

ce.

While M

IT ha

s its r

oots

in tra

dition,

the un

iversi

ty

repres

ents

all tha

t is ex

perimen

tal, e

xcitin

g and

future

-orien

tated

. For

me des

igning is

highly

person

al an

d private

. Befo

re I s

tart d

esignin

g, I

resea

rch th

e sub

ject s

o tha

t my w

ork will b

e

repres

entat

ive of

it. I a

lways t

ry to

use c

olours

and m

ateria

ls tha

t relat

e to t

he su

bject a

nd th

e

typefa

ce m

ust fi

t the w

hole

design.

Quite s

imply,

my objec

tive is

to des

ign a prod

uct w

ith an

accu

rate v

isual

and ve

rbal mes

sage t

hat c

an

be und

erstoo

d by the

audien

ce.“ ”

MIT

Jacq

ueline C

asey

MIT

The Seasons, 1983

The President’s and the Provost’sBall in honor of the Academic Dean, 1981

Casey’s work is a blend of Swiss cleaness and Italian creativity. as well as being inspired by the modernist movement. She adopted the new Swiss typefaces Helvetica and Univers as her recurring fonts, combining typography with geometric forms and large planes of color. Her posters were riddled with methaphor, double meanings and witty humor. Her humor and playfulness adds the final dimension which elevates her from being a good designer to a great one. She was able to bring the imagination of her beautiful,

organic design to MIT, which is primarily known for its strides in science and technology. Given this, her work fit in perfectly with the university’s aesthetic. She demonstrates an accesible advance for the International Style, and it’s very unfortunate that with the re-animation of the movement, Casey’s work has nearly been entirel skipped over. In the American design scene, where agressive self-promotion is valued before ability,

Goya: The Disasters of War, 1971

it comes to no surprise. In every one of Jacqueline Casey’s posters, there is a visual element that attracts the viewer and the text provides the information. She works at her best when she employs visual metaphors. One such example is her ‘Goya: The Disasters of War’ poster, where she uses a blood splat as her solitary image, where the interplay of verbal and visual ignites our imaginations and encourages a deeper understanding of its subject. Balance is also a key as-pect in Casey’s work. A critical balance between visual and narrative form is made in each of her works which allows the viewer to not only engage with his or her own imagination, but with their understanding of the poster’s subject matter.

Corners, 1979

Arts on the Line, 1980

Eye Magazine. “Eye Magazine | Feature | Woman at the edge of technology.” Eye Magazine. http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/woman-at-the-edge-of-technology

MITnews. “Designer Jacqueline Casey Dies at 65 - MIT News Of-fice.” MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1992/casey-0520.html

Poulin, Richard . “Jacqueline Casey at MIT - RockPaperInk.com.” RockPaperInk: Inspiration, Ideas, & Opinions from Design Fanat-ics. http://rockpaperink.com/content/article.php?id=48

Sources

Designed by Frances Mahoney

Printed and bound by Frances Mahoney

Composed in Helvetica, typeface designed by Max Miedinger, 1957

Academic Honesy, 1984