SVA's latest subway poster was created by New York designer George Tscherny, who taught the first course in graphic design at the College in the mid 1950s. Tscherny is responsible for SVA's current logo, which he unveiled in 1996. The logo was made from brush strokes, as Tscherny "wanted to avoid the 'hard-edge' sameness of corporate trademarks," he said. Fast-forward fifteen years and Tscherny has placed his original design above a new icon for the digital age-the QR code. Voila! SVA's latest subway poster is born.
Demonstrating the power of logos, the subway poster is SVA's first advertisement that includes no wording to indicate its affiliation with the College. Instead, viewers scanning the QR code with their smart phones or tablets are led to a video depicting artists engaged in acts of creative expression. Information about SVA appears at the end of the video.
"The School of Visual Arts balances a very broad agenda ranging from technology-based programs to painterly pursuits. In designing the school's identity program, back in the late 90s, I sought to reflect that range with the spontaneity of a painterly mark and the icy perfection and elegance of the Bodoni typeface for its signature," Tscherny explained. "In the QR poster, I maintained that contrast by retaining the painterly mark but by substituting the perfection of the Bodoni signature with the brutal competence of the QR icon." Serving as creative director on the new poster was SVA Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes.