The Map Office - Mapping A New Graphic Landscape
2011
The Map Office, a New York-based multidisciplinary design studio, specializes in brand, web and print design. As a small yet internationally renowned design group, the Map has forged both commercial and creative relationships, with clients such as Banana Republic, American Express, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Studio Museum in Harlem. In describing the mission of The Map Office, founder and creative director Eddie Opara asserts, “Our process is to translate our clients’ needs into dynamic visual systems that can be presented at any scale. It is our goal to create seamless, natural experiences where any surface is a potential display and any gesture, a potential command.” With investments in the commercial, institutional and research facets of the design process, the studio has pioneered a unique approach centered around educating clients on the fundamentals of visual communication.
As head designers to The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Map Office designs the Museum’s seasonal catalogue, Studio, and Opara established the Museum’s visual identity while working at 2x4, New York. The first Map Office-designed Museum exhibition catalogue was Energy/Experimentation, in which Opara premiered typeface designer Joshua Darden’s typeface Freight. Other projects include Sophie, a design resource for young women seeking to expand their knowledge of design, nutrition, beauty and fashion. More recently, The Map Office has been designing a new website for The Kitchen, a nonprofit experimental performance space in New York. The site will launch later this year, and highlight Map’s integration of research and design, from concept to completion. In the near future, The Map Office will venture in new directions, collaborating with a New York University film student to provide graphic support for a short documentary about kites and possibly opening an office in Los Angeles. Eddie Opara and cofounder George Plesko earned their MFAs in graphic design from Yale University and founded The Map Office in 2005. As creative director, Opara’s projects include designing and developing large-scale graphics installations, innovative software, web interfaces and graphics for clients such as Disney Imagineering, Graphis, Surface and Elle.
As head designers to The Studio Museum in Harlem, The Map Office designs the Museum’s seasonal catalogue, Studio, and Opara established the Museum’s visual identity while working at 2x4, New York. The first Map Office-designed Museum exhibition catalogue was Energy/Experimentation, in which Opara premiered typeface designer Joshua Darden’s typeface Freight. Other projects include Sophie, a design resource for young women seeking to expand their knowledge of design, nutrition, beauty and fashion. More recently, The Map Office has been designing a new website for The Kitchen, a nonprofit experimental performance space in New York. The site will launch later this year, and highlight Map’s integration of research and design, from concept to completion. In the near future, The Map Office will venture in new directions, collaborating with a New York University film student to provide graphic support for a short documentary about kites and possibly opening an office in Los Angeles. Eddie Opara and cofounder George Plesko earned their MFAs in graphic design from Yale University and founded The Map Office in 2005. As creative director, Opara’s projects include designing and developing large-scale graphics installations, innovative software, web interfaces and graphics for clients such as Disney Imagineering, Graphis, Surface and Elle.
