Brian

Huge news! 📢 Poster House is thrilled to receive the support from the @warholfoundation for our upcoming exhibition, Designed to Be Red: Native American & Indigenous Poster Works, curated by @brianpolymode . This exhibition celebrates nearly two centuries of Native graphic design, presenting Indigenous designers as innovators and shapers of visual culture across more than 60 tribes and nations. Coming to Poster House in Fall 2026!

Thrilled to share that the show I’m curating, Designed to Be Red: Native American & Indigenous Poster Works, has received grant support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. @warholfoundation This exhibition has been years in the making, and I’m deeply grateful to the many people who’ve made it possible. Thank you to the Warhol Foundation for believing in this work and supporting exhibitions that center underrepresented voices in design history. Thank you to @posterhousenyc for providing a home for this show and championing graphic design as a lens for understanding culture and history. Thank you to the @bipocdesignhistory community for the ongoing dialogue that shapes how we think about whose stories get told. Thank you to my team at @polymodestudio for the collaboration that makes everything possible. And most importantly, thank you to the artists and designers whose work fills this exhibition—your creativity, resistance, and joy are at the heart of everything. This exhibition features works by Native designers spanning nearly two centuries and representing over 40 tribes and nations. Swipe through to explore the five thematic sections—each revealing how Indigenous designers have shaped, subverted, and celebrated their own narratives through graphic art. (Indigenous Joy, Creative Sovereignty, Resistance & Protest, It’s Complicated, Marketing & Extraction) Hope to see you at the exhibit, September 25, 2026–February 21, 2027. #WarholFoundation #WarholGrantee

🎉Announcing ArtViews: Perspectives in Contemporary Native Art 🎉 Join us on June 23 at The Institute of Fine Arts, NYU for a half-day symposium exploring Native art as a living, evolving practice shaped by history, sovereignty, education, and today’s contemporary art ecosystem. Presented by the American Federation of Arts with support from the Terra Foundation for American Art, and in collaboration with Brian Johnson (Monacan Indian Nation), curator and writer, Founder of BIPOC Design History, and Partner at Polymode. The afternoon will present three panels featuring artists, curators, scholars, gallerists, and cultural leaders including: • Neal Ambrose-Smith • Nathaniel Cummings-Lambert • Petala Ironcloud • Alan Michelson • Dare Turner • Sage Innerrarity • Demian DinéYazhi with a special performance by Laura Ortman. 📍 The Institute of Fine Arts, New York University 🗓 Tuesday, June 23, 2026 🔗 Grab your tickets at the link in our bio! This symposium is made possible through the generous support of the Terra Foundation for American Art. Public programs are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. These programs are also supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. We are also grateful for the generous support of Berkley Asset Protection and Arthur F. and Alice E. Adams Charitable Foundation. Image credit: Neal Ambrose-Smith. Coyote Explains to Max, 2019. Courtesy the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery

Virtual Event! Office Hours: Decolonizing Design This session explores what it means to decolonize design — and how that shows up in practice. Together, we’ll reflect on the systems and narratives shaping our work, and consider how we might begin to shift them. We’re welcoming back Brian Johnson from our upcoming event Identity Is Variable as our guest moderator. Brian will help ground the conversation with an opening perspective before we move into an open discussion. This session is intended to be thoughtful, exploratory, and participatory. Whether you’re new to this topic or have been engaging with it for some time, all perspectives are welcome. _ This series is open to creatives of all levels. We encourage early registration, as we’re limiting each group to 35 participants to ensure an intimate and engaging conversation. After each session, we’ll share a recap with further reading to keep the conversation going. About Office Hours Office Hours is a discussion series for people working in design. Staying up-to-date in our ever-evolving industry can be tough, and we’re here to create a space for designers to come together and discuss the latest trends, news, and challenges in a casual, open environment. 📍Zoom 📆 Thurs, Apr 30th ⏰ 6-7:30 PM 🎟️ $5 🔗 in bio for more info!⁠ Typography from @supercontinente_ by @fffffabifabiola

🔥 EVENT ALERT🔥 Polymode and XYZ Type: Identity Is Variable Polymode's Brian Johnson and XYZ Type's Jesse Ragan are launching two new projects, Polymode Sans, a variable typeface, and Identity Is Variable, a book exploring type through 15 diverse perspectives. Then the real conversation begins: a discussion on culture, identity, and typography with nicole killian(@saucyunicorn ), David Jon Walker (@davidjonwalker ), and more. 📍 Museum of Arts and Design 📅 Thursday, April 23 Tap the link in bio.

Check out our lively conversation with four instructors from BIPOC Design History: Silas Munro (Black Design in America: African Americans and the African Diaspora in Graphic Design 19th Century – 21st Century); Ramon Tejada (Incomplete Latinx Stories of Diseño Gráfico Borderlands / La Frontera*); Randa Hadi (Design Histories in Southwest Asia & North Africa: Voices from the SWANA Diaspora); and Brian Johnson ((re)Creating Turtle Island: Native American Design Through Remembered History). Like all of them, we believe in creating community and expanding the conversation. You can explore more of our shared world at perhapsmagazine.com (linked in our bio). Lead image: BIPOC Design History Reader, 2024. Designed by Randa Hadi, Sadeem Yacoub, Silas Munro, Brian Johnson, and Edgar Casarin. Courtesy of BIPOC Design History. #bipocdesignhistory #blackhistorymonth #designhistory #printedmatter

Free Iran, and all oppressed peoples.

Ending the year with artistic learning, oh, and curious Aurelius

✨ ANNOUNCEMENT ✨ We’ve been working behind the scenes to make this possible, and we’re excited to announce the launch of Polymode Foundation. The foundation is a non-profit centering the histories, practices, and futures of Indigenous, Black, and People of Color in art and design. As a 501(c)(3), our mission moves at the intersection of design, memory, and imagination. We believe design is not only a tool for communication but a vessel for care, resistance, and collective knowledge. We invite you to collaborate and support our mission—donate today and help us build this future together.

Cold sunset in Praha with @kreslet

Truly lucky to see one of my favorite professors who was in Santa Fe today. Thanks for the coffee and talk @martinvenezky , was great to catch up and talk about #risd my research, and @polymodestudio

Taos sunset color fields