The Big Four (Four Fours), by Robert Indiana, 1964.
“Four, Indiana explained to Arthur C. Carr, was an unhappy number and ‘not a lucky number by common superstition’.” (From Robert Indiana: Figures of Speech by Susan Elizabeth Ryan.)
Uh-oh.
Fold Four is excited to begin work on The Essential Robert Indiana catalogue for the Indianapolis Museum of Art. I recently spent some time in the Milwaukee Public Library’s art reference library poring over past publications devoted to the artist.
Michelle and I recently took a ceramics class, where we experimented with throwing on the wheel and slab building. The experience left us with much more appreciation for this delicate craft!
Sample chapter opening of the Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity catalogue, which Fold Four is currently designing for the Art Institute of Chicago.
The knitting needle storage box I recently made for Michelle.
Fold Four has joined Pinterest!
The kiln at Studio Touya. Proprietors Hitomi and Takuro Shibata moved to Seagrove, North Carolina from Shigaraki, Japan in 2005.
While visiting family in North Carolina, Michelle and I had the opportunity to visit several potters in the Seagrove community. Pictured here is Luck’s Ware, with fifth generation potter Sid Luck seated at the wheel in the background.
Another peek at the Quay Brothers catalogue and its puppet string layout.
Text detail from the Quay Brothers catalogue that Fold Four is designing for MoMA. Going to press soon!
Interior and exterior views of Jasper Johns’s studio in Edisto Beach, SC. Photographs by Ugo Mulas, from Jasper Johns: A Retrospective.
Compost Bin
A relatively quick weekend project to replace our dilapidated compost bin. I found the design online; two corners are attached with hinges and the other two attach with spring-loaded hooks. This allows it to be opened from opposite sides for turning the compost, as well as broken down for easy movement.
Fold Four is designing the “Regarding Warhol: Fifty Artists, Fifty Years” catalogue for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The cover, pictured here, is intended to evoke the outsized effect that Warhol has had on subsequent generations of artists. The placement of the type also centralizes and thus lends prominence to the other fifty artists featured in the exhibition.
The glued and milled legs for the headboard.
I love old trucks.
The Roy Lichtenstein catalogue has gone to press! Pictured here is the title page of the book.
Glue-up of one headboard leg.
Milled walnut… Soon to be bed parts!
Modernism Week car show, Palm Springs
Modern homes in Palm Springs, CA
Modernism Week garden tour, Palm Springs.
Wall made of rotated cement blocks. Tweaking the use of common materials is an effective means to distinctive design.
Neutra’s iconic Kaufmann House, where a sign out front said trespassers will be met with an “armed response.” Yikes.
Vintage fabrics Michelle purchased at the Modernism Show.
Palm Springs, CA
About
Roy Brooks operates the graphic design studio Fold Four. He has over twelve years of professional experience designing books, identities, websites, and related ephemera for institutional and commercial clients nationwide.
Brooks studied graphic design at North Carolina State University. Upon graduation he spent four years in New York City, working first at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and later for the international design consultancy Pentagram. The following four years were spent in Chicago working under the moniker Field Study. Brooks now resides in Milwaukee and continues working with both local and long distance clients, primarily in the cultural sector.
Brooks was selected as one of the "100 most significant" graphic designers in Area, a curated international survey of contemporary graphic designers, and was featured in the exhibition Young Chicago at the Art Institute of Chicago. Current clients include the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, and the Art Institute of Chicago.
Unconventional thinking and a rigorous pursuit of typographic refinement and expression are Roy Brooks' hallmarks. Joe Rosa, Young Chicago exhibition catalogue
Contact
Fold Four, Inc.
The Office of Roy Brooks
12213 West Harrison PlaceMilwaukee, WI 53227
(414) 431—8376 phone
(877) 349—4110 fax
WEBSITE CREDITS
Design: Fold Four
Development: Scuffedshoe Interactive
Books
-
Self Reflections:
The Expressionist Origins
of Lisette Model
Bruce Silverstein Gallery -
Re: Chicago
The DePaul Art Museum -
Rob Fischer
Whitney Museum of American Art -
Vincent van Gogh:
The Starry Night
The Museum of Modern Art -
Inside North Korea
Chronicle Books -
Maria Pergay:
Between Ideas & Design
Demisch Danant -
Cy Twombly:
The Natural World
The Art Institute of Chicago -
Tim Burton
The Museum of Modern Art -
Diane Simpson: Sculpture + Drawings 1978-2009
Diane Simpson / The Chicago Cultural Center -
Alexander Calder
and Contemporary Art:
Form, Balance, Joy
MCA Chicago -
Karl Wirsum:
Winsome Works(some)
The Chicago Cultural Center -
Jasper Johns: Gray
The Art Institute of Chicago