Art Director: Patricia Cué
Photographer: Ron Kerner
Category: Branding, Print Collateral, Vector Illustration
education
Mingei rebranded in 2019 with an updated logo, this also meant rethinking our design approach to the different departments within the Museum. From 2020 to the present, I’ve handled the majority of the design for our membership and education departments, below are some of the projects I’ve done over the past 3 years.
group passes
The group passes were the first print collateral we designed for the Education department, with the intention of envisioning what the brand would look like moving forward. Education has several programs so we decided to denote each program with a different color.
mascots
The Maneki Neko is used as the main mascot for Education with the Daruma appearing in instances like the art hunt, summer and winter camp, and school in the park.
mini mingei
Mini Mingei is a toddler-centered story-time and art activity that occurs twice a month. Blue is primarily used for Mini Mingei collateral with the Maneki Neko vector holding a book.
Art hunt
Flat file of Mingei’s art hunt. This is folded as a zine and is given to caregivers and the Museum’s littlest visitors, as well as being given out during Family Sunday and School in the Park.
family sunday
Lesson plans that I’ve done in the past can be found on the website here. Below is an example of Family Sunday at Home, a monthly in-person program where families could do an art activity together had become a mailed art kit the Education department had sent during the pandemic supplemented with an Instagram live of the activity. This art kit included a lesson plan, a postcard, and the materials for the art activity that month.
Front side of the lesson plan, Rhys Eusebio had done the illustrations for creating a Filipino parol.
Back side of the lesson plan, Rhys Eusebio had done the illustrations for creating a Filipino parol.
Karen Alleluia, a local artist here in San Diego created the parol illustration above and had even woven Mingei’s branded shape.
One of my favorite moments was when PASACAT had a parol festival at the Museum. The lesson plans were also distributed here and it was just a special moment to see parols being made in the space.
summer at mingei (camp)
Summer E-blast header of our Maneki Neko + Daruma mascot
On the first day of summer camp, children screen-printed their own shirts.
winter at mingei (camp)
Winter E-blast header of our Maneki Neko + Daruma mascot
school in the park
School in the Park is a program where elementary school students learn what goes on behind the scenes at museums. In partnership with Price Philanthropies, students go to different museums in Balboa Park and Mingei is one of those museums.
In the Fall of 2022, I presented a short 15-minute presentation about what I do at my job (specifically posters) and then had the students try their hand at designing posters about Mingei for the next 30 minutes. I placed objects from Mingei’s collection and current exhibits along with elements of the Minge brand (logo + shapes) onto Canva in preparation for the project. In groups of 2-3, students were given iPads to use Canva and create their very own Mingei poster.
Featured above are printed posters of what the School in the Park students created.
What got me into graphic design were accessible free programs like Microsoft Paint and GIMP. While I wouldn’t use Canva as a design tool in my job, I do believe it’s a wonderful program to introduce design to students.
donor signage
For donors who had supported the Classroom as part of Mingei’s transformation, we wanted to create a sign that would feel right at home in the space. Using our Maneki Neko mascot, the donor names appear on what would have been the coin it holds.