Esther Wu is a graphic designer.
The Whiff of Uncertainty
INFORMATION GRAPHIC: During the school semester, a classmate and I would take the same path to the subway home every night, and every night there would be a moment along the way where we caught the distinctive scent of baking at Dunkin’ Donuts. For 11 nights, I recorded the time, location, and duration of the smell and then documented the weather conditions for that time and place, looking for a pattern. Alas, the study was inconclusive.
Featured on First Nerve, Avery Gilbert's blog on the science of smell, and on Mapping Weird Stuff. See also Jodi Pfister's blog where she is developing a Smellscape iPhone app.
Designed as a class assignment; instructor: Scott Stowell
I may not get there with you...
KEY ART: A new play by Katori Hall imagining a conversation between a Lorraine Motel chambermaid and Martin Luther King, Jr. on the night before he is to be assissinated.
Designed at SpotCo; Creative Direction: Drew Hodges and Vinny Sainato; Photography by Mary Ellen Mark
Guthrie Theater 2011-2012 Season
KEY ART: Title treatments for the 2011-2012 season at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN. The Guthrie asked for a unified season look this year and Nicky Lindeman devised a grid system using black and white title treatemnts and pairing them with inexpensive stock photography. Together Nicky and I designed the whole season's key art in one fell swoop. Here is the whole season's art.
Designed at SpotCo; Creative Direction: Vinny Sainato
Peer Gynt
KEY ART: Peer Gynt by Ibsen, performed at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, MN.
Designed at SpotCo with Gail Anderson
Featured in STEP Inside Design, June, 2008 and 365: AIGA Year in Design 29; one the works Ms. Anderson chose to feature
in her AIGA profile.
Love Will Steer the Stars
SOUVENIR PROGRAM: For the Tony-winning Broadway revival of Hair.
Designed at Rogers Eckersley Design (RED) for Creative Goods; Art Direction: Sam Eckersley; Photography by Joan Marcus, Chase Newhart, and Robert J. Saferstein
It Suck to be Me!
SOUVENIR PROGRAM: For the Tony-winning, now Off-Broadway and touring shows of Avenue Q.
Designed at Rogers Eckersley Design (RED) for Creative Goods; Art Direction: Sam Eckersley; Production photography by John Daughtry; Puppet photography by Nick Reuchel
Garden Party
KEY ART: Unused key art for an azalea exhibition at NYBG;
Designed at SpotCo; Creative Direction: Vinny Sainato
Garden Party
KEY ART: For a family Halloween program of events at The New York Botanical Garden.
Designed at SpotCo; Illustration by Andrea Dezsö; Creative Direction: Vinny Sainato
Peep Show
LOGO: This logo was pitched as part of a series of windowcard designs for Peep Show, a burlesque show in Las Vegas.
Designed at SpotCo; Art Direction: Darren Cox
A Fine Romance
LOGO: A Fine Romance is an annual benefit show for the Motion Picture & Television Fund.
Designed at SpotCo with Greg Coleman; Art Direction: Gail Anderson
WATER GLASS
Fig. 297615 : DNA
This E. coli cell has been lysed and its proteins and organelles removed. This bacteria is one of the most studied organisms on earth. It is being used, by manipulating its gene expression, to synthesize new biofuels, print 2D images, and give off the scent of peppermint. It's also a water contaminant and leading cause of childhood diarrhea worldwide.
WATER GLASS
Fig. 720251 : PROOF
From the Middle Ages to the mid-19th century, it was generally thought that diseases like cholera were spread via foul-smelling air or “miasma.” During an outbreak of cholera in 1854, Dr. John Snow theorized that the disease was caused by germs in contaminated water. His map of the deaths proved that the water from a certain pump was responsible for nearly all of the cholera fatalities.
WATER GLASS
Fig. 920217 : IN & OUT
Every cell has a thin membrane formed by phospholipids, each of which has a head and a tail. The head is hydrophilic (attracted to the surrounding water) and the tail is hydrophobic (repelled from water). Thus they spontaneously orient themselves into two layers.
Fig. 1
LOGO and PRODUCTS: Science is such an important sphere of culture, affecting all aspects of society. Yet it's not a conscious prescence in most people's lives. Fig. 1 is a brand and line of products that aims to bring the scientific curiosity and discovery to everyday life. Each product bears an image, title, and figure number; the user can visit the Fig. 1 website which gives the breadth of information on each image and it's subject matter.
Designed as part of my MFA thesis; Thesis Advisor: Paola Antonelli
A Tale of Two Posters
POSTERS: Each week, the SVA MFA Design program invites guest lecturers to speak to students and each student is asked to design a poster. On a Monday, one student in the MFAD program left to start his own business. Ellen Lupton was due to come in on Thursday to give a lecture and that student had been assigned the design of the poster for it. I volunteered to do it in his stead. On such short notice, I didn’t have much time to think so I modified an idea I had for the Joyce Rutter Kaye lecture poster. On the other side, the Joyce Rutter Kaye poster was assigned to me in January for a lecture on April 12. I had time to read many back issues of Print, mull, overthink, and redesign.
The Ellen Lupton poster was a Semi-finalist at the 2007 Adobe Design Achievement Awards.
Everyone's a Suspect
MAP/INFORMATION GRAPHIC: This map describes the complex relationships in Robert Altman's Gosford Park, one of my favorite films. Click image to enlarge.
Designed as a class assignment; instructor: Stephen Doyle
Hugh Jackman
TYPE: Unused title treatment for Hugh Jackman's Broadway return.
These Delightful Grooves
TYPE: designed as a personal project
Genetics 101
Created concepts and storyboards for this animation, explaining the principles of genetics as well as the specifics of Lysosomal Disease.
Work done at Empax for Hide & Seek Foundation for Lysosomal Disease Research; Animation by Ehud Tal
Death of Innocents
BOOK COVER: The Death of Innocents is the investigation of a woman who lost 5 children to SIDS, and twenty years later goes on trial for their murders. Her story is intertwined with the history of the world of clinical SIDS reasearch and how the murder of her two children set SIDS reasearch back a decade.
Designed as a class assignment; instructor: Milton Glaser
Geek Love
BOOK JACKET: Geek Love is the gritty, epic story of Binewski’s Carnival Fabulon and the family that runs it—Mom and Dad and their children: a boy with flippers, a hunchback albino dwarf, and piano-playing Siamese twins.
Designed as a class assignment for Evan Gaffney
Kidney
BOOK COVER: Kindey is a new addition to the "Who Knew?" genre, telling the ins and outs of this fascinating and surprisingly elegant organ.
Designed as a class assignment; instructor: Evan Gaffney
Clients
SpotCo
The New York Public Library
Roundabout Theater Company
Atlantic Theater Company
New York City Opera
Rogers Eckersley Design (RED)
Capacity Interactive
Tablet Magazine
Children's Theatre Company
Empax
Allworth Press
MTV Networks
The Scarlet Letter: A New Opera by Lori Laitman
The Stratus Foundation