TOP LEFT: NEW TACTICS IN HUMAN RIGHTS: A RESOURCE FOR PRACTITIONERS, September 2004. A 192-page book for national and international human rights workers and activists published by THE CENTER FOR VICTIMS OF TORTURE and THE NEW TACTICS IN
HUMAN RIGHTS PROJECT. BOTTOM LEFT: PERFORMING ARTS SEASON BROCHURE 2005–2006, July
2005. Designed for an audience of Walker Art Center members and visitors, as well as the local and national performing arts community, this 36-page brochure was printed in 5 colors and saddlestitched. RIGHT: WALKER ART CENTER VISITOR
MAP, March 2005. The map was offset printed in 4 colors.
Matthew Rezac took a slightly circuitous path to graphic design.
Despite some urging from the chair of the Design Department to
change his major, he graduated from MCAD with a photography
degree. The commercial photo world, however, didn’t prove to be
a good fit for Rezac. He missed the research and concept development
aspect of design, which he’d been introduced to in elective
courses at MCAD, and eventually he returned to the school for a
two-year, pre-MFA design program.
Today he’s working as a graphic design fellow at the Walker
Art Center in Minneapolis. Since the institution is known for the
quality of its in-house design department, the one-year fellowships
are highly coveted. Rezac and the other current fellow, however,
were asked to stay on for a second term in the midst of an ambitious
building expansion. “It’s been great,” he says of the experience.
“I think I’ve learned more in the last year than I did my
entire college career. It’s kind of trial by fire.”
One of the things Rezac enjoys most about design is the process
of discovery—the conceptual exploration as he tries to find
the perfect solution within given time constraints. He’s put his
problem-solving skills to work on everything from a visitor guide
map for the new Walker to a full-length book called Expanding the
Center: Walker Art Center and Herzog & de Meuron.
“He is someone who intuitively understands the importance
of challenging traditional notions of how a designer sees or how
they should work,” says Kali Nikitas, the former MCAD faculty
member who was at first unsuccessful in encouraging Rezac
to change majors and was later instrumental in his re-enrollment
at the school. Now the chair of the department of Visual Arts at
Northeastern University in Boston, Nikitas says Rezac distinguished
himself by being enthusiastic, modest, and committed to
his work.
Michelle Taute
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