Hocus Focus exhibition poster
Poster, Hocus Focus, 1979; designed by Keith Godard (American, b. London 1942); USA; gift of various donors; 1981-29-364 — in the collection of the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.
Keith Godard’s wonderful poster for an exhibition at a children’s museum.
Here is what Keith had to say about the thinking behind this poster in his book, This Way—That Way: Prints + Posters Exhibitions + Environments. (Lars Müller Publishers, 2001):
“The Hocus Focus poster was designed to promote an exhibition at the Staten Island Children’s Musuem about how artists see the world and how they can look through their eyes. There was an enjoyable whimsy of figuring out, in two color designs, fifteen faces that suggested different artistic personalitites. Each was created with as many different geometric forms as possible to reflect the numerous styles and approaches by artists.
A production note: the poster was folded into twenty panels, and then two 1/4″ holes were drilled through the folded poster. The holes serve the direct and obvious purpose of looking.”
This is what the folded poster looked like, showing the drilled holes.
Postcards designed for the exhibition.
The postcards with string showing how they could be worn as a mask.
