CENTRO ROBERTO GARZA SADA – UNIVERSIDAD DE MONTERREY
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY PENTAGRAM ABBOTT MILLER
CENTRO ROBERTO GARZA SADA – UNIVERSIDAD DE MONTERREY
GRAPHIC DESIGN BY PENTAGRAM ABBOTT MILLER
Abbott Miller has
designed environmental graphics for Tadao Ando's new arts center at the
Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico.
A school of design
and architecture that is itself a bold architectural statement, the Centro Roberto Garza Sada (CRGS) is a new
arts center at the Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM) designed
by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando. Located in the mountainous
landscape of northeast Mexico, the monumental concrete building rises out of
its surroundings to announce the university and has quickly become an iconic
landmark for the growing city of Monterrey. Pentagram’s Abbott Miller has
designed a comprehensive program of signage, wayfinding and environmental
graphics for the center that complement the raw physicality of Ando’s building
with clean, crisp shapes and sleek, smooth surfaces.
The CRGS was
conceived by Ando as a “Gate of Creation” that is both a marquee building for
UDEM and a metaphor for the learning process. The six-story structure acts as a
gateway for the campus and provides amazing vistas of the region. Constructed
of cast concrete, the monolithic, minimalist form bridges over a massive
triangular void at its center. The portal is meant to symbolize the opening or
beginning of the students’ educational journey, and anchors the diagonal axis
of the campus. The building was recently honored at the 2013 World Architecture Festival, where it was short-listed in the Higher Education and
Research category.
The building was
conceived by Ando as a "Gate of Creation" that provides an entrance
to the campus and symbolizes the beginning of the educational process.
Miller’s signage for
the building takes a contrarian approach: pristine white lettering, glossy
white discs, and glassy prisms form a counterpoint to the rough gray concrete
walls. The sign family consists of discs in various scales, ranging from six-inch
diameter to five feet. Typography is carefully composed against the empty white
space of the pure geometric shapes. The typeface used throughout the
environmental graphics is Fakt, a refined, highly functional sans serif
font designed by Thomas Thiemich.
A variety of
techniques are used to fully integrate the program with the architecture. Some
signs use letters pin-mounted directly on the concrete; studio workspaces are
identified with oversized numbers silkscreened directly on walls. The
building’s main directory is fabricated of smooth Corian with etched and
paint-filled lettering. The shiny metal circles feature an enameled finish with
silkscreened graphics. Many of the signs reference the dramatic diagonal of the
building with slanted lines and arrows.
Miller also
developed a unique installation of donor recognition signage for CRGS. Located
just off a wall of glass at the main entrance, the sculptural installation
consists of over 100 three-sided bars of clear, polished Plexiglas hanging on
lengths of cable. Names of donors are engraved into the surface of the rods,
with three to five bars grouped on each strand. (A legend is posted nearby to
find the exact location of each name.) The prism-like rods shift in the air and
change with the light: during the day they catch the sun that flows through the
building’s void, and at night they are illuminated. The pattern of lines
elegantly echoes the striations in Ando’s concrete, while the crystalline forms
set off the building’s immense mass.
Miller will present
the keynote at the UDesign Conference held at UDEM on March
3-6, in conjunction with a large exhibition of his work.
Names of donors are
engraved on prism-like Plexiglas rods that change with the light.
In 2009, Abbott
Miller developed environmental graphics for another school with innovative
architecture, the academic building at The Cooper Union in New York, designed by
the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and his firm Morphosis.
Pentagram previously collaborated with Tadao Ando on the design of
environmental graphics for the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas.
Project Team: Abbott
Miller, partner-in-charge and designer; Yoon-Young Chai, Chris Adamick and
Kristen Spilman, designers. Photography by Oscar Estrada and Jorge Taboada.
Typography is carefully
composed on the simple circular shape and
set in the Fakt font.
Some signs are pin-mounted directly on the concrete. Arrows and
slanted lines reference the building's dramatic diagonals.
slanted lines reference the building's dramatic diagonals.
In contrast to the building's rough concrete, the environmental graphics
appear in shiny, smooth materials, like this directory made of Corian.
Wayfinding signage.
Typography on studio identification signage is artfully composed.
Studio workspace numbers are screened directly on the walls.
Identification and wayfinding signage appears on shiny metal discs
that stand in contrast to the building's textured concrete walls.
that stand in contrast to the building's textured concrete walls.
The shiny discs set off the raw beauty of the concrete and also complement
the building's simple geometric forms.
Facility and restroom signage also appears on circular discs.
Donor recognition signage appears as a sculptural
installation in the building's lobby.
installation in the building's lobby.
Pentagram London Office
Pentagram Austin Texas Office
Pentagram Berlin Office
Pentagram Austin Texas Office
PENTAGRAM
Pentagram is the world's largest independent design consultancy.
The firm is owned and run by 19 partners, a group of friends who are all
leaders in their individual creative fields.
We work in London, New York, San Francisco, Berlin and Austin. We
design everything: architecture, interiors, products, identities, publications,
posters, books, exhibitions, websites, and digital installations.
Each of our clients works directly with one or more of our
partners. This reflects our conviction that great design cannot happen without
passion, intelligence, and personal commitment, which is demonstrated by a
portfolio of work that spans five decades.
ABBOTT MILLER
Abbott Miller was born in Indiana and studied design at the Cooper Union School
of Art in New York. In 1989 he founded the multidisciplinary
studio Design/Writing/Research where,
in collaboration with Ellen Lupton,
he pioneered the concept of “designer as author” undertaking projects in which
content and form are developed in a symbiotic relationship. He joined
Pentagram’s New York office as a partner in June 1999.
Abbott’s projects are often concerned with the cultural role of
design and the public life of the written word. At Pentagram he leads a team
designing books, magazines, catalogs, identities, exhibitions, and creating
editorial projects.
Abbott has received numerous design honors, including medals from
the Society for
Publication Designers and three nominations for National Magazine
Awards. In 1994 Abbott—together with Ellen Lupton—was awarded the
first annual Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design.
His work and critical writing has appeared in Eye, Print, I.D. and
other publications, and he is the co-author of four books, including the classicDesign/Writing/Research:
Writing on Graphic Design. A survey of his design work, Open Book:
Design and Content, will be published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2010.
