Early in the fall semester, the Graphic Design program in the School of Art received an unexpected gift: a donation of some 240 posters. Courtesy of Graphic Design alum Cathy Tuttle (Art BFA 82), the selection included rare posters from the ‘70s from a number of artists and alums such as Mike Kelley (Art MFA 78) and Daniel J. Martinez (Art BFA 79).
To learn more about Tuttle and her impressive poster collection, 24700 caught up with Tuttle over Zoom, who had just spent an afternoon “struggling with InDesign.”
A city planner and consultant based in Utrecht in the Netherlands, Tuttle revealed that the impetus for parting with her posters was learning about the CalArts Poster Archive—a resource that the Institute did not have when she was a student.
She arrived at the Institute having already earned a joint bachelor’s degree in physics and history. As a student, Tuttle found opportunities to immerse herself in CalArts’ “hotbed of cross-fertilization”—as well as its vibrant poster culture. She recalled a great deal of enthusiasm generated for events across campus, and that the accompanying posters had to stand out “in the marketplace of so many great productions.”
“It is the Times Square of ideas at CalArts,” said Tuttle.
No matter how eye-catching, however, the posters were taken down the instant the event was over. Believing these ephemeral works demanded documentation, Tuttle took it upon herself to start a collection.
“I was collecting posters all along as a student because nobody was realizing the historic importance of them, and how much they actually were a record of what the community was doing,” said Tuttle. “How all the people were collaborating with each other, how artists were seeing each other, recording each other. I think it’s a great method of creating community.”
With assistance from then-faculty Frans Evenhuis, Tuttle began cataloging her collection as a hardcover book. They worked on the book pro-bono, but required funds to bring the volume to print.
“I badgered the administration for $10,000. Yes, I said, ‘Give me money and I will produce a book,’ knowing nothing about producing books,” Tuttle shared with a laugh. “But I thought that it was a way of showcasing the things that CalArts had done over 10 years. What better way? Certainly, at the 10-year anniversary, there were films made, there were all sorts of speeches made, but actually having something tangible in your hand is a great record.”
The result was Tuttle’s The CalArts 10th Year Poster Book (1980), featuring dozens of posters by CalArtians from the Institute’s first decade, including work by Sheila Levrant de Bretteville (founder of CalArts’ first design program for women), Adam Beckett (Film/Video BFA 73), FX Feeney (Film/Video BFA 76), as well as faculty members Alison Knowles, and James Tenney. Looking back, Tuttle says that the book “gives a sense of the incredible dynamism of the institution for the first 10 years.”
When asked if she has favorites among the posters she personally created at CalArts, Tuttle noted a series she did for a theater production of Hamlet. After speaking with various members of the crew—the lighting designer, the sound designer, the costume designer—she created a poster for each about their contributions. “It was kind of like a minibook of how the theater piece came together.”
She also recalled another more experimental poster: “I cut up a bunch of apples and got some red paint and razor blades and glued it all together and stuck them on a wall.” The work seems symbolic of her creative practice; Tuttle describes her art as coming “out of the graphic and into the lived space.”
“I think a lot of the things that I did creatively were coming off the page, and not flat in book or poster format, although I think it’s super important. I like the interaction of people and objects, in particular how they use objects in unexpected ways.”
This interest in recontextualizing objects and spaces would gradually shape Tuttle’s post-CalArts career. Her first job out of school was working for ABC TV, followed by a brief stint doing audiovisual engineering at Zoetrope Studios in San Francisco. She then moved to Seattle, where she earned a master’s degree in anthropology and a PhD in urban design and planning from the University of Washington. Tuttle also did audiovisual work for exhibitions at Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, the Museum of History & Industry, and the Burke Museum of Anthropology.
“That turned into curation and exhibits,” said Tuttle. “And then it grew into cities!”
Though city planning may seem like an unusual career for an artist, she notes that her CalArts training is a crucial asset to her work. Tuttle’s out-of-the-box vision extends to adapting public spaces, like parks, in ways that allow visitors opportunities to make them their own. She has designed 40 parks in Seattle. Tuttle noted one that incorporated hidden design elements for skateboarders and longboarders, such as shred-worthy ramps and ledges. Beyond design, bringing the parks to fruition is a collaborative action between artists, engineers, landscape planners, and law enforcement.
“You have to listen to lots of different people to come up with a park,” said Tuttle. “Also, my work has been in community organizing, and you’re not listening to a monolithic voice. You’re listening to a number of voices. I learned the skills of collaboration in CalArts.”
Another salient facet of urban planning, according to Tuttle, is climate resilience: “We are going to need to radically decarbonize our lives and our cities very quickly.” In this vein, she has recently taken on several projects—including ones that allow her to flex her graphic design chops. She proposed a car master plan for Portland, published an opinion piece about gendered traffic violence, and is working on a survey for the London Women’s Cycling Campaign, a continuation of a survey she had done in Portland and the organization carried out in London. She is also working on a book—a catalog titled 2025 Cargo Bike Catalog in collaboration with the International Cargo Bike Festival held annually in the Netherlands.
“People use [cargo bikes] to carry their kids around, but they’re also kind of the last mile delivery vehicles, especially in Europe, and I think it’s really important that it lets people see the potential they have for creating sustainable cities,” Tuttle said of the book. “Graphic design is really useful there—assuming I can get InDesign to do what I want it to do!”
