The Design Museum of Chicago’s 2025 “Great Ideas of Humanity” exhibition features posters from nine LMU studio arts students. The graphic designers – Alfonzo Dave, Nicole Dressel, Olivia Giganti, John Leary, Jestene Passolt, Leila Walker, Dezia Washington, Lucien Weber, and Eddie Young – created the posters as part of Professor Garland Kirkpatrick’s Art 3668 “Typography II” curriculum.
“Great Ideas of Humanity” is an ongoing series inspired by an advertorial campaign that ran from 1950 to 1975 called “Great Ideas of Western Man.” It asks designers to create a visual response to a great idea. Each poster features a thought-provoking phrase from an influential person. The words of activists, historians, philosophers, and poets are transformed into powerful visual statements that invite discourse.
The LMU student work stood out immediately for its bold visual language and thoughtful engagement with great ideas. We were impressed by the clarity, curiosity, and social relevance reflected in their posters. It’s exciting to see emerging designers bring such depth and ambition to the conversation. — Tanner Woodford, Founder and Executive Director, Design Museum of Chicago
Kirkpatrick received an invitation to participate in the series and proposed opening the opportunity to his graphic designer students as a final typography project. Design Museum of Chicago agreed to consider one student design, so Kirkpatrick was thrilled when the museum selected all nine designs for the exhibit. Rather than being shown in the museum’s student exhibit, intended for rising designers, all nine LMU student posters were chosen for the professional exhibit, and shown alongside their professor’s work.
Alfonzo Dave IV ’26 says his piece “Change the World,” which features words by Angela Davis, is both a call to action and a response to the social climate. In his artist statement he writes: “The stopwatch reflects the pressure of time and draws from the Doomsday Clock. It doesn’t just track time; it warns and demands. Change is not theoretical. It’s immediate. Being part of the Great Ideas of Humanity show gives me the chance to deliver this message to the world through symbol and metaphor.”
Tanner Woodford, Founder and Executive Director of Design Museum of Chicago says, “The LMU student work stood out immediately for its bold visual language and thoughtful engagement with great ideas. We were impressed by the clarity, curiosity, and social relevance reflected in their posters. It’s exciting to see emerging designers bring such depth and ambition to the conversation.”
These students, many of whom will enter senior year in the fall, are already well on their way to a successful future in the arts. They have gained recognition by a jury of curators; displayed work at a national museum of design; and they will forever have a connection to the legacy of this prescient mid century project where advertising intersected with the humanities for social good.
“Great Ideas of Humanity” will run through August 4, 2025. The complete portfolio of LMU student posters can also be viewed on the museum’s website.
