Event Information

“Fun on a computer screen. Absolutely creepy and uncomfortable in real life.”
That’s how one blogger described a side project that became an overnight sensation for CSCA’s next guest speaker, Mark Pernice.

That face…those widespread eyes and crazy mouth seen through an Apple Photo Booth filter…created a frenzy when Pernice’s had a rubber mask made to match his stretched self portrait. Subsequent photos of Pernice wearing the mask while riding a bike, doing laundry, and otherwise being himself became a web-wide sensation. (If you really want to lose sleep, look up the shot of a toddler wearing it.) Fast Company described it as “delightfully horrible.” We concur.

Of course, there’s much, much more to Pernice than this experiment. Pernice and his Brooklyn-based studio, Matic, produces a remarkably wide range of illustration, typography, identity and other work for clients ranging from personal friends to Anthropologie to The New York Times.

Join us as we meet the designer who happily mixes media, blurs reality, and surprises audiences with every opportunity he gets. *

*That is, unless Mark chooses to flirt with disaster first. “Using Photo Booth on the mask itself,” he says, “may create some sort of paradoxical shift where I cease to exist.”

About our guest

Graphic designer and illustrator Mark Pernice is a New York native and alum of the School of Visual Arts. He advanced from early work in film poster design to designing for a variety of clients and industries. Clients include Urban Outfitters, Virgin Mobile, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, Universal Music Group and The Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. Pernice spent part of 2008 working under world-renowned graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister and Paula Scher in 2010. He is most comfortable on stage when he’s singing or playing music. Mark’s recognitions include two 2011 FPO Awards, Make Magazine 10 Best of 2010, HOW Magazine Outstanding Achievement award, 2009 AIGA PDA award and a Print Magazine Regional Design Annual award.