Boston Public Library Adds Sasaki-Designed Map to Collection
The Boston Public Library’s Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center will add an Avenue of the Arts map designed by Sasaki’s graphic design team to its permanent collections.
The map depicts Boston’s Huntington Avenue, known as the “Avenue of the Arts.” This district is home to several of the City of Boston’s major cultural and educational institutions, including Northeastern University, Wentworth Institute of Technology, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, MassArt, and the New England Conservatory. Designated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as a Cultural District, the area attracts nearly 3 million annual visitors who enjoy some 2,400 performances, exhibitions, and other cultural events every year.
Sasaki developed the map as part of a cultural planning effort commissioned and supported by the Boston Foundation and led by Futurecity, a London-based consultancy. “Sasaki was responsible for visualizing complex information that came out of a cultural audit, explains Sasaki creative director F. Philip Barash, who is currently serving as a fellow with the Boston Foundation. “The resulting map contains multiple layers and ideas stitched together in a beautiful and provocative visual language. It gives the district a cohesive identity, enumerates its cultural institutions, provides transit and walking overlay, and interprets the area through brief vignettes.”
Hard copies are now being printed to coincide with the launch of the district’s cultural plan, which will be announced on Wednesday, October 10, at an event hosted by the Boston Foundation at HUBweek.
A limited edition run of 150 prints of the map was printed at MassArts last week, under the direction of Fred Liang, a faculty member, and with support from the Boston Foundation. The prints were done in six-color process, split fountain screenprint, on 22″x30″ Stonehenge 250gsm Black paper.
The first print of the edition will be accepted into the permanent collection of the Norman B. Leventhal Map & Education Center at the Boston Public Library. “It will make a beautiful and highly relevant addition to our collection, as maps of Boston and New England are one of our Collections of Distinction,” said Dory Klein, Map Librarian at the Leventhal Map & Education Center upon accepting the map to the collections.
Sasaki’s graphic design team at MassArt’s printmaking studio last week, overseeing the initial run of prints:
Creative Director F. Philip Barash excitedly examines the printed maps
The prints were done in six-color process, split fountain screenprint, on 22″x30″ Stonehenge 250gsm Black paper
The printing process
A full team effort
Creative Director F. Philip Barash excitedly examines the printed maps
The prints were done in six-color process, split fountain screenprint, on 22″x30″ Stonehenge 250gsm Black paper
The printing process
A full team effort
