JACQUELINE CASEY

PRESENTED BY SARAH HERBOLD

 BIO
• Jacqueline Casey: April 20,1927 – May 18, 1992
• Casey’s parents wanted her to enroll in a
bookkeeping & admin program
• College: Massachusetts College of Art class of
1949
• Creative Industries: Advertising, interior &
publication design, fashion illustration, etc.
• Post grad:
• Worked in a department store at cash register
• Travelled to Europe
• Worked in the Office of Publications at MIT,
recruited by Muriel Cooper
• Career:
• 1955 MIT publication office
• 1972 office director after Muriel Cooper
• 1989 retirement
 QUOTES

“My job is to stop anyone I can with an arresting or

puzzling image and entice the viewer to read the message
in small type and above all to attend the exhibition.”
- Jacqueline Casey
 QUOTES

“[She created] some of the most elegant posters in America. . . Her sense of
proportion is at once precise and measured, organic and humane. These
seemingly opposite qualities are clearly appropriate for her subjects and her
audience. Most of her posters announce arts events at [the] MIT, an institution
known primarily for teaching and research in science and technology. Yet,
surprisingly, those posters for other events (scientific lectures and academic
programs, for example) are equally imaginative, lively and personal. MIT is, first
and foremost, an institution dedicated to learning in all its varied, humanistic
facets. Through careful analysis, Casey uncovers the essence of each subject and
communicates the creative spark which is the source of all.”
- Joseph P. Ansell (Visual Arts Department chair Otterbein College)
 ‘MIT Open House’ SPECIALIZATION
1974
559 x 432mm

• Graphic designer, specialized in poster

development
• Contributed to the well known ‘MIT
‘There is no greater love’ Style’
For the MIT Gospel
30 April, 1988. 
560 x 880mm. • She often created striking elemental
imagery, using letterforms to turn her
works into messages.
• ‘Split-fountain’ effects inspired by
colleague Dietmar Winkler (bottom)
 NOTABLE WORK

• Most notable: MIT graphics

• Current displays: Permanent
collections in the Museum of
Modern Art, the Cooper-Hewitt
Museum, & the Library of Congress.
• MOMA collection (from top left,
bottom left, middle, top right, top
left):
• Coffee Hour, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology poster, 1979
• Six Artists, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology poster, 1970
• The Moon Show, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology poster, 1969
• Center for Space Research Symposium,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
poster, 1968
• Open House, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology poster, 1969
 PREFERRED MEDIA ETC.

• Posters
• Swiss design style
• Inspired by: Karl Gerstner, Josef
Müller-Brockmann and Armin Hofmann
• Thérèse Moll introduced concepts
• Grid system, sans-serif typeface (European
typography)
 CONCEPTUAL
INQUIRIES

• Goal: use striking

elemental imagery, and
letterforms to portray
message
• Part of Functional
Modernism Movement
• Personal, creative,
visionary, elegant
 THEN VS NOW

• Sparked change in poster design style

• Muriel Cooper era vs MIT Architecture
2017 (Casey’s poster on bottom left)
• MIT incorporates Casey’s use of
letterform, split text and grid design
elements to this day
 REFERENCES

• “Casey, Jacqueline.” SFMOMA, 1 Oct. 2021,

https://www.sfmoma.org/artist/jacqueline_casey/.
• “Designer Jacqueline Casey Dies at 65.” MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
https://news.mit.edu/1992/casey-0520.
• “Designing Women: Jacqueline Casey.” Designing Women: Profiles,
https://designingwomen.readymag.com/profiles/jacqueline-casey/.
• “Eye Magazine.” Eye Magazine | Feature | Jacqueline Casey. Science and Design,
http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/jacqueline-casey-science-and-design.
• “Eye Magazine.” Eye Magazine | Feature | Woman at the Edge of Technology,
http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/woman-at-the-edge-of-technology.
• “The Humanistic Designer: Jacqueline Casey.” The Humanistic Designer: Jacqueline Casey |
MIT 2016, https://mit2016.mit.edu/campus-cambridge/century-employees/casey.
• “Jacqueline Casey.” Jacqueline Casey | Biography | People | Collection of Cooper Hewitt,
Smithsonian Design Museum, https://collection.cooperhewitt.org/people/18053543/bio.
THANK YOU!

ANY QUESTIONS?