Opening in September 2018, the Block Museum’s exhibition Up is Down: Mid-Century Experimentation in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio reexamines the innovative work of Goldsholl and Associates and its national impact.
In the 1950s, Chicago-based design firm Goldsholl Design Associates made a name for itself with innovative "designs-in-film." Headed by Morton and Millie Goldsholl, the studio produced television spots, films, trademarks, corporate identities, and print advertisements for international corporations like Kimberly-Clark, Motorola, and 7-Up. Although they were compared to some of the most celebrated design firms of the day, the Goldsholls and their designers are relatively unknown today.
The exhibition features highly inventive moving images alongside materials related to their creation, including print advertisements, designed objects, drawings, and photographs, and it provides context for understanding Chicago as a testing ground for ideas connecting art, design, and film that gained international currency.
