Visual Art

Intentional Designs

Foster Gallery hangs award-winning graphic designs

photos by Andrea Paulseth |

Design With Intent features work from graphic designer John Rieben’s illustrious career.
Design With Intent features work from graphic designer John Rieben’s illustrious career.

The latest exhibit at UW-Eau Claire’s Foster Gallery features the work of award-winning graphic designer John Rieben. Design with Intent: 5 Decades of Design for Communication is a retrospective of his work as both a designer and a professor of design. It comprises more than 100 pieces, including many well-known designs from his professional career.

Rieben earned his bachelor’s degree in information design at the University of Michigan. He then earned his master’s degree in both fine arts and communication at Indiana University Bloomington. He started his design career and went on to create numerous posters, logos, and trademarks that many of us would recognize today. After many years of professional design, he joined the UW-Madison Graphic Design faculty, where he taught until his retirement. Rieben’s work uses blocks of color and clean lines and typefaces to create a modern style.

His work has been featured at the Library of Congress, the American Institute for Design, the Museum of Modern Art, and at many other venues. Rieben’s hope for the exhibit is that it will inspire aspiring young artists to realize their potential with a career in graphic design.

Design With Intent, runs until Feb. 14 and is open to the public during the gallery’s regular hours. There is no admission charge to see the exhibit, and the gallery – which is located in the Haas Fine Arts Center, 121 Water St. – is open 10am-4:30pm every weekday, 6-8pm on Thursdays and 1-4:30pm on weekends.