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Jennifer Morla was born and raised in Manhattan and received her BFA in graphic design from Massachusetts College of Art, but her illustrious design career is most closely associated with the San Francisco Bay Area. Attracted to the non-conformity of the Bay Area design community, Morla migrated to San Francisco in 1978, where she has become one of the most respected graphic designers in the industry.
Morla believes that design "is not solely a marketing device that supports consumerism" but can be an agent for real change. In 1981, she challenged norms as the art director at Levi's, where she proposed having renowned contemporary artists depict their classic 501 jeans. Collaborating with Andy Warhol on the project, Morla created a new language for a product that had previously only been represented with Western themes.
In 1984, at the age of 28, Morla opened her own studio, Morla Design, a multi-faceted design firm that offers corporate identity, print collateral, retail store design, book design, packaging, web and multimedia design. Projects have included cover designs for the New York Times magazine, the QuickTime brand launch for Apple computers, broadcast animation for MTV, four Swatch watches, fabric collections for Luna Textiles, Levi's jeans shops, as well as numerous identity campaigns, books and posters for experimental art organizations and museums.
After working closely with Rob Forbes for several years in a consulting capacity for Design Within Reach, Morla was asked to join the company as creative director in 2005. Morla commented, "DWR is one of the few design-driven companies I know of. Strategic marketing goals are based on design education and communication." Under her guidance, the DWR creative team has been recognized with awards from both Graphis magazine and Communication Arts.
Morla has served on the National Board of AIGA, is a member of Alliance Graphique International (AGI) and serves on the Accessions Committee for Architecture and Design at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA). She also teaches senior graphic design thesis at the California College of the Arts. During her career, she has received more than 300 awards for excellence in graphic design, and her work is part of the permanent collections of both New York's Museum of Modern Art and SFMOMA, where she was honored with a solo exhibition in 2000. |
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