Stephen Frykholm’s Picnic Posters

On view in GRAM’s Level 1 galleries is the complete set of Stephen Frykholm’s Picnic Posters, drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection.

Frykholm (American, b. 1942) joined the modern design company Herman Miller in 1970 as its first in-house graphic designer. Frykholm’s first assignment at Herman Miller was to design a poster for the company’s yearly summer picnic, which turned into an annual project for the next two decades. He used screen-printing to create the posters, utilizing a simple process he learned while working for the Peace Corps in Nigeria. The posters’ appeal lies in Frykholm’s rendering of traditional picnic foods in simplified forms and their bright and contrasting colors. The surface of each poster is covered in a glossy varnish, which gives the designs an added pop.