Mary Louise Killen

Master of Fine Arts, Visual Communication, '09

2009 Fellowship Recipient

Experience at SAIC

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) exhibited a mode of interdisciplinary thinking both in the studio and in the community. Specifically, the Visual Communication department showcased ways to approach projects methodologically generating experimental narrative structures and resetting physical parameters. I yearned to create a visual language of design all leading to self-directed research and thesis development surrounded by designers, historians, writers and researchers each challenging my daily practice. SAIC affords students the resources to create opportunities unique to their practice in the presence of a melting pot rich in history, artistic vigor and cultural convergence here and beyond.

Personal statement

I strive to design and distribute legible book typefaces. My research and thesis development specializes in type design (both Latin and nonLatin), letterpress printing and fifteenth-century European manuscripts.

Design industry practices of the twentieth- and twentieth-first-century and critical academic methodologies inform my study of the history of typefaces and a font's technical capabilities. Further, my interests lie in the gesture, posture and pressure a letterform commands in relation to a designer, model or instrument. My research at The Newberry Library of Chicago centers first on the visible elements of a scribe's hand rendered in select fifteenth-century illuminated manuscripts showcasing documentary cursive. Secondly, investigating the materiality of a machine such as a letterpress is grounded in early twentieth-century American sans serifs of W. A. Dwiggins (influential book and type designer). To design type incorporating multiple languages is my next goal.

While studying at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) and The Newberry Library of Chicago, I observed vellums from the fifteenth-century and the type specimens of early twentieth-century. This experience gave me a greater understanding for the scale and mark of a letterform and my notion of the total environment in which work was created by master scribes, calligraphers and type designers. Such discoveries are difficult to duplicate by merely viewing a work on the computer. The SAIC Fellowship award funding provides valuable assistance in the completion of my M.A. degree abroad. Traveling to various collections in London, such as the St. Bride Library, allows me to continue experiencing original specimens and contribute to my capabilities as a type designer.

Current Interests

In Fall 2009, I am entering the University of Reading to complete a postgraduate taught Typeface Design program. Producing a digital typeface with variants along with a research dissertation establishing the theory and relevance of my font will culminate a year's venture abroad. Self-motivations and research objectives shape one's career and how one approaches a project. Gaining a fresh start in England, a part of the world ripe with history, technology and international languages, promises to fortify my future as a text-based type designer. Teaching myself how to think innovatively, question critically and contribute to the type design industry is of utmost importance to my practice.

Background

Education
- M.A., University of Reading, anticipated graduation Summer 2010
- M.F.A., School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2009
- B.F.A, Magna Cum Laude, Louisiana State University, 2007

Major Fellowships, Grants, Awards, and Exhibitions
- M.F.A Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2009
- M.F.A. Graduate Exhibition, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2009
- John/Mary E. Hoggins Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, 2008-2009
- Dean's Medal recipient, Louisiana State University, College of Art and Design, 2007
- 11 Silver ADDY Awards, The Advertising Federation of Greater Baton Rouge - 7th District, 2007
- Associated Collegiate Press Design of the Year, first place, Legacy Magazine, Louisiana State University, 2007
- Outstanding Junior in College of Art and Design, Louisiana State University, 2006
- Object 9 Collegiate Design Scholarship, 2006