Lance Wyman design logbooks 1972–present

Lance Wyman This research enquiry is around the use of sketchbooks / logbooks as a testing ground for ideas and inventions as part of a designers or artists process. Lance Wyman has a design process established over many years that includes a dedication to the use of his ‘design logbooks’ to sketch, develop and deliver his projects. Lance is a prominent and respected practitioner of global renown, operating from his studio/house in New York. This exhibition was curated by Pam Bowman and Matt Edgar to bring Lance Whyman’s practice to designers in the UK. The exhibition included all 86 of the logbooks, stretching back to 1972, which were placed alongside content from Unit Editions Monograph on Wyman and film content produced by ourselves. Lance opened the show at Sheffield Institute of Arts Gallery in the Cantor building with a talk. Steven Heller, prolific design writer and critic, was commissioned to write the introduction, quoted below. The Confidant By Steven Heller Sketchbooks, journals, and diaries are the artist and designer’s most loyal confidant, the keeper of secrets, serendipitous discoveries, subliminal musings and spontaneous ideas. The riches they can hold is inestimable, not as an end but a means to an end. They are part of a magical creative process that no one but their owners have the right to see — yet they can nonetheless be invaluable to others. Throughout history, these sketchbooks, journals and diaries have been so jam packed with insights and revelations that it would be stingy of the artists and designers not to share with others. Privacy is a treasured, inviolable right, but since artists and designers are also teachers, there is no better way to demonstrate the creative experience than to show others what was never meant to be shown — such as the inner workings, failures, false starts, inspiring references, etcetera — all the stuff that makes art and design happen. All the logbooks have now been filmed page by page by Bowman and Edgar for further study and preservation in the UK as a valuable archive.