Rebus Quotes Exhibition at Harrisburg Area Community College

The solo exhibition, “Rebus Quotes & Other Typographic Explorations: Design Work by Frank Baseman” opened at the Rose Lehrman Gallery at Harrisburg Area Community College (HACC) in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with a public lecture and reception. Both events were very well attended, and the exhibition continues through November 8, 2022.

An important thing Professor Frank Baseman wanted to try to do throughout the exhibition was to help explain some of the process behind the making of much of the work on display to the viewer. One method he embraced was to show sketches within the captions (where appropriate). These included sketches by hand from his sketchbooks, as well as what he refers to as “Word doc sketches” where he would re-write quotes, phrases or lyrics with potential images to come, as through a rebus lens.

Another favorite part of the exhibition is this 6 x 8 foot installation called the “Process Wall.” Much as it sounds, an attempt to show some of the process behind much of the work in the show. Huge shoutout and thanks to Shawn Williams for installing the 6 x 8 foot sheet metal, which made the collaging of the material so much easier using small—yet mighty—magnets. Kinda looks like a mess, but sort of organized chaos using many forms of hand sketches from his sketchbooks, the Word doc sketches, type proofs, makeready sheets, digital layouts as well as physical paste-up layouts, etc.