John Wegner (MFA, California College of the Arts / BA, DePaul University) is a graphic designer with concentrations in publishing and communication design. As a practitioner his work concentrates on slowness. In an era when our lives are increasingly optimized, when design happens in sprints, and creativity is viewed as a commodity – his approach promotes the value of questions over answers, conversations over solutions, and dialogue over monologue. For a decade he’s worked as an art & creative director for commercial clients such as Google Chrome, LinkedIn, PayPal, and Nokia.
In parallel, he maintains a DIY self-publishing practice, Dummy Books, which functions as a laboratory for dissemination of personal publications. Dummy Books values process over perfection and offers a platform for quick sketches, half-baked ideas, and on-the-fly experimentation. Notable titles include Sousveillance (2016), Systematic Imagination (2017), Routine, (Sarah Weitzman, 2022) and Rabbit Covid Diary (M.S. Quinlan, 2023). His work has been exhibited at California Academy of Sciences, Gray Area (SF), Asian Art Museum, Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco, La Casa de El Hijo del Ahuizote (CDMX), and La Côte Lapin (NYC).
Departments
Art + Design