MFA Design faculty member Stephen Doyle hopes you’ll look closely at the latest installment of SVA subway series posters: each of his three designs, now gracing platforms around the city, invites a deep dive into the intricate sculptural forms he creates—playful, often labyrinthine constructions of text and image.

Doyle’s SVA posters build off of his long-standing and ongoing hypertext pieces, wherein he carefully dissects printed texts and constructs three-dimensional structures out of them—improbable feats of engineering, design and imagination. The models he builds reflect the same energy, ingenuity and audacity he sees embodied in the pursuit of art in general and the College’s programs.

Since the mid-1950s, SVA has featured the work of practicing faculty members as part of a promotional initiative staged on the New York City’s subway platforms. The subway series posters promote the College and showcase the individual artist’s vision, offering a thought provoking and visually exciting appeal to potential students and fellow New Yorkers as part of their everyday life. Featured artists have included Louise Fili, Steven Heller, Ivan Chermayeff and Milton Glaser, among many others. SVA Executive Vice President Anthony P. Rhodes has served as creative director for the posters since 2007.

I spoke with Doyle, an AIGA-award winning designer, about what it was like to turn his attention to designing about art and design and in a particularly site-specific way. “It feels so great to get my moment out of the sun, and in the New York subway stations!” he says, excited to join the ranks of his peers and idols underground.

Features