DESCRIPTION:
A graduate of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Ponik worked as a designer for several years until joining the Walker Art Museum in Minneapolis as a Design Fellow. At the Walker he collaborates in a team of junior and senior designers on print and identity work, all of which support the museum’s exhibits and multidisciplinary performance programming.

VOICE:
Ponik approaches new projects thoughtfully and slowly, ruminating until his response forms. He draws ideas from all over, and tends toward reportage—images that bear the weight of the “real.” “I’ve become a little obsessed with research,” he admits. He admires filmmaker Werner Herzog’s adamant insistence on the inclusion of real-life detail, and designer Stephen Doyle’s work that he characterizes as “simple in form, superconceptual, and witty.” Ponik elaborates: “I don’t think everything needs to be simplified, if it’s not a simple problem or project.”

DISTINCTIVE MARKINGS:
Remember that flea market in Minneapolis? That fellow with the fedora pulled over his eyes, fingering the used books? He was eavesdropping on your conversation. Ponik minds his manners, but he likes to position himself outside, among people and things, to see if an idea pops out.

HABITAT:
Ponik describes his desk at the Walker as “messy/meticulous. I have this duality that comes from a combination of my dad, who was an engineer—his desk was all gridded out—and my mom, who was into drawing, the looser side of thinking.” The compromise is a mountain range of paper piles. He also collects printed materials, design pieces, and photos by the dozens.

SPOTTED BY:
Clive Piercy, principal of Ph.D, Los Angeles: “It’s very unusual to sum up a young designer’s work as ‘sophisticated,’ but for me that is the best word to describe Scott. Great photography merges seamlessly with excellent design skills and a flawless typographic voice. I wish I’d been as good as him at that age.”

CONTACT:
612.375.7579 | scott.ponik@walkerart.org

Written by Jude Stewart