Modern Dog  

Modern Dog Unleashed

Come out and enjoy an evening of story-telling with Michael Strassburger and Robynne Raye of Seattle based Modern Dog. Their heady mix of intuitive design, cheeky humor and punk rock aesthetics has made them unique among design firms and a hell of a lot of fun. Their work is often seen in the rock poster arena, but they cover a much larger social terrain and have that rare ability to address serious issues while making you laugh. They'll give you a brief overview of their 20 year history – including what it's like working with fun and challenging clients like K2 Snowboards, Blue Q, Coca-Cola, Olive Green Dog Products and Nordstrom. And they'll talk about their latest project, a monograph published by Chronicle Books titled Modern Dog: 20 Years of Poster Art. You'll Laugh, you'll cry, you'll win prizes.

Presenter Bios

Michael Strassburger has more than 20 years of professional experience in graphic and interactive design as one of the co-founders of Modern Dog Design Co. His work ranges from brand identity to package design to motion graphics to music composition, and has been exhibited internationally. His posters are in the permanent collections of museums and libraries around the world, including the Louvre, Experience Music Project, Library of Congress, and the Hong Kong Heritage Museum. Mike teaches interactive design at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.

Since co-founding the design studio Modern Dog Design Co. in 1987, Robynne Raye has continued to do work for theatre and entertainment companies - both local and national - and counts poster and identity design as some of her favourite work. Her posters are represented in the permanent archives of the Louvre, Library of Congress, Bibliotheque Nationale de France, Warsaw National Museum, and the Smithsonian Institute's Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum among others. Robynne teaches design at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle.