Through intensive inquiry, Shelley Stepp explores the meaning of how one responds to nature and design. As a graphic designer, she is interested in the contemporary interpretation of the landscape and the collaborative process between graphic designer and landscape designer. Pedagogically she expands the definition of graphic designer as “translator in the natural world” through the process of discovery and active experiential learning. Currently Shelley is collaborating on a project involving the collection and display of ephemera and found objects in nature.
Shelley is the Director of the CalArts School of Art MacLab and technical faculty and mentor for the graphic design program at CalArts. She formalized the CalArts Graphic Design Poster Archive, documenting a visual history of the program from the 1970s to the present through collecting, archiving and disseminating screen
printed posters. Shelley’s most recent project involved the design, layout and space details for the School of Art MacLab remodel, a four year project from concept to completion.
Published work is included in the following books & periodicals:
Graphic Design History: A Critical Guide by Johanna Drucker and Emily McVarish, Typography 27, Emigre #30, Typography, Digital Type, Typographics 1, Typography Now Two, and her work has been requested for the permanent collections of The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry and the Museum Fur Kunst Und Gewerbe Hamburg, Germany. Previously Shelley was the recipient of a three year California Arts Council grant.
Shelley received a BFA in graphic design from Oregon State University and an MFA in graphic design from CalArts.