When Jennifer Sonderby isn’t managing 500 visual communications projects per year in support of more than 30 exhibitions as SFMOMA’s creative director, she is devising her own futuristic novels. “Fastphoric, my thesis project that began at CCA (nominated for Artweek’s Best-in-Show category, March 2003), continues to evolve. The text elicits discussion of how different reading technologies inform one another, addressing issues of language, technology, and reading in the future.” According to Sonderby, her novel “allows its readers to experience the same story in three speeds.”

Sonderby's work addresses how new technologies have transformed the way we read, altering the very landscape of contemporary culture. The initial iteration of this project now holds a place in SFMOMA’s permanent collection of architecture and design.

Most recently her work has been published in Area 2: 100 Graphic Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Design Classics (Phaidon, 2008). In 2007 Sonderby was featured in California College of the Arts at 100: Innovation by Design, an SFMOMA exhibition honoring CCA’s centennial celebration. In 2006 she was selected to participate in the international design exhibition Design for Innovation: The Social Designers, hosted by the Nagoya Design Center in Japan. In 2003 she was a presentation speaker at From Creator to Consumer in a Digital Age: An International Conference on the Future of the Book in Cairns, Australia, and at the University of Technology in Sydney.

In summer 2001 Sonderby taught design at Zimbabwe Institute of Visual Arts (ZIVA) in Harare, a school she first heard about during a talk at Timken Lecture Hall on CCA’s San Francisco campus. Sonderby’s friend, Martin Venezky—her thesis advisor and at the time ongoing visiting artist for the Design programs—taught a form class that inspired her teaching experience in Zimbabwe. “Martin approaches his work with painstaking care and deep thoughtfulness, creating work that expresses his distinctive voice,” she notes. Sonderby has won awards from the AIGA (American Institute of Graphic Arts), Print magazine, Graphis, the American Association of Museums, the Mohawk Show, and the Art Directors Club, among others.

“There’s an open dialogue between CCA and SFMOMA,” adds Sonderby, who helps to seamlessly connect the two art institutions. She speaks regularly with former professors at CCA and guides CCA student interns at SFMOMA to “observe the sound, color, texture, and pattern of the museum to gain a better understanding of the environment, as these elements relate to its marketing and design.” Sonderby also involves outside designers in SFMOMA projects as a way to engage and represent the Bay Area design community. Each mailing panel of SFMOMA’s bimonthly member publication, for example, showcases original artwork by guest artists/designers, using the letters of the name of the museum as a starting point.

“I love putting things together,” explains Sonderby, who traces her passion for design to high school, when she enrolled in supplemental classes at the Art Institute of Chicago. She studied visual communication and art history as an undergraduate at the University of Kansas. At that stage in her education she was seeking a liberal arts experience surrounded by students interested in a wide variety of curricula.

Sonderby taught design at CCA from 1999 to 2002. Once CCA created its Graduate Program in Design, she decided to pursue her MFA. ”I was accepted into RISD (Rhode Island School of Design) and Yale, but CCA offered me the opportunity to take part in the development of a new curriculum.” As a teacher, this was very important to her. “Faculty at CCA are practicing designers; this ensures that they are in touch with the day to day,” she explains. Only six graduates were in the first class, and Sonderby’s professors were extremely receptive to her participation in the evolution of what was then an intimate program.

Today CCA’s Graduate Program in Design offers a far-reaching experience that prepares students to enter the design professions with dynamic skills, confidence, and well-tuned strategic thinking. We’re thankful to Jennifer Sonderby for her contributions to Bay Area design.

Born in Chicago

CCA degree:
MFA 2002, Design

Residence:
San Francisco

Current occupation:
Creative Director, SFMOMA; futuristic novelist

Influences at CCA:
Martin Venezky, Stewart McKee, Lucille Tenazas

Websites:
www.sonderbydesign.com
www.sfmoma.org