Thursday, 16 August 2007 | Levent OZLER

Design Firm MINE to be Most Honored in Biennial Exhibition

The Pasadena Museum of California Art has honored the San Francisco design firm MINE with four inclusions in the prestigious California Design Biennial - the most inclusions of any graphic design firm.

"It's an honor to have just one of our projects recognized," says Christopher Simmons, principal and creative director of the three-person firm, "We were most honored to learn that four of our projects were accepted into the biennial."

MINE is represented alongside several larger, more well-known firms such as Apple, Mitsubishi, and Belkin, and is one of just 17 graphic design firms represented in the biannual exhibition.

MINE's winning projects include a book designed for Rockport Publishers, a poster for AIGA, the professional association for design, and the firm's own stationery design. The fourth project, a roll of barricade tape imprinted with the words "everything is ok" has been appearing mysteriously at protest rallies and public gatherings over the past year. Although all of the projects have previously received international recognition for design excellence, Simmons says it is particularly gratifying to be recognized in your home state."

The juried exhibition showcases a cross section of the most innovative and important design produced in California over the past two years in five categories: fashion, furniture, transportation, consumer products, and graphic design. The exhibition is structured to bring attention to new directions in design and explore the ways that design impacts and inspires everyday life.

The Biennial exhibition kicks off with a private reception for designers on August 18, and is open to the public starting August 19.

MINE is based in San Francisco, California. Since it's founding in 2004, the firm has designed identities, books, consumer products, packaging and print and interactive collateral for scientific visionaries, educational reformists, best-selling authors, museums, design institutions, entrepreneurs, telecommunications giants and Hollywood producers. These projects have been recognized by numerous awards and features in leading national and international publications.

MINE was founded by designer Christopher Simmons. That same year, Christopher joined the likes of Saul Bass, Milton Glaser, Lucille Tenazas and Massimo Vignelli when Graphic Design: USA declared him, "A Person to Watch." Christopher is a past president of the San Francisco AIGA, the professional association for design. On completion of Christopher's tenure, Mayor Gavin Newsom issued an official proclamation declaring San Francisco to be a city "where design makes a difference."