Picture the last time music moved you. Imagine how the sound was amplified. Think about what initially drew you to that album cover or concert poster. How did design shape your experience?
Explore this question with us in Art of Noise. This exhibition is a multi-sensory ode to how design has changed the way we’ve experienced music over the past 100 years. Don’t miss:
Floor-to-Ceiling Gallery of Music Graphics
Pore over 400+ San Francisco psychedelic rock posters, featuring legendary bands like the Grateful Dead. See icons of graphic design by Milton Glaser and others. Mid-century modern album covers, as well as hip-hop, punk, and rave flyers complete this expansive display of incredible color and creativity.
Music Technology and Innovative Product Design
Chart over a century of sound in over 100 objects, from early phonographs to the Music: Not Impossible Haptic Suit, which translates sound onto the skin through vibration. Discover experimental music devices with design choices that will surprise you.
teenage engineering’s Design Touch
Settle into a seating landscape that invites you to connect with others through music. The Swedish music-tech company has applied their unconventional design mindset to the exhibition experience, from this plush, sound installation to the look and feel of the gallery spaces.
Go behind the scenes — preview the exhibition, read about the design firm responsible for its iconic look, and meet some of the rock concert poster artists from San Francisco’s 1960s psychedelic music scene.
Major support for Art of Noise is provided by Mary Jo and Dick Kovacevich, The Bernard Osher Foundation, and the Bernard and Barbro Osher Exhibition Fund.
Significant support is provided by Deborah and Kenneth Novack.
Meaningful support is provided by Sonya Yu.
Additional support is provided by Aston and Aushlee Motes, Joby and Jackie Pritzker, and the Diane and Howard Zack Fund for Architecture and Design.
Header image is a composite of three separate posters. From left to right: Joy Division, Unknown Pleasures, poster, designed by Factory Records after Peter Saville, 1979; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, purchase through a gift of Jenny Emerson and Accessions Committee Fund; © Peter Saville; photo: Tenari Tuatagaloa. Mathieu Lehanneur, Power of Love music player, 2009, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Accessions Committee fund purchase; © Mathieu Lehanneur; photo: Don Ross. Milton Glaser, Dylan, 1967, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of the designer; © Milton Glaser, permission of the estate of Milton Glaser; photo: Tenari Tuatagaloa.