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Jonathan Key

Adjunct Instructor
Frank Stanton Chair in Graphic Design (Spring 2019)

Jon(athan) Key is an art director, designer, and writer. His collaborations have lead him to work with a diverse set of clients and institutions as designer, educator, and artist including HBO, Nickelodeon, IDEO, Grey Advertising, The Public Theater, MICA, American University in Beirut, Parsons, and the Whitney Museum. His creative pursuits have allowed his work to be featured internationally in galleries, museums and collections in Boston, Toronto, New York City, London, and Ljubjana, Slovenia. He currently serves as a contributing art director to The Tenth magazine, a Black, queer arts, and culture magazine; and just launched Morcos Key, a design studio with his partner Wael Morcos. Jon is a co-founder and the design director of Codify Art, a Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist collective whose mission is to create, produce, and showcase work that brings the voices of people of color, highlighting women and queer people of color to the foreground. He is a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, where he received a Bachelors of Fine Art in Graphic Design.

codifyart.com

Man in the Violet Suit No 2, 2017 Acrylic on Paper
Man in the Violet Suit No 2, 2017 Acrylic on Paper

 

  • Founded by inventor, industrialist and philanthropist Peter Cooper in 1859, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art offers education in art, architecture and engineering, as well as courses in the humanities and social sciences.

  • “My feelings, my desires, my hopes, embrace humanity throughout the world,” Peter Cooper proclaimed in a speech in 1853. He looked forward to a time when, “knowledge shall cover the earth as waters cover the great deep.”

  • From its beginnings, Cooper Union was a unique institution, dedicated to founder Peter Cooper's proposition that education is the key not only to personal prosperity but to civic virtue and harmony.

  • Peter Cooper wanted his graduates to acquire the technical mastery and entrepreneurial skills, enrich their intellects and spark their creativity, and develop a sense of social justice that would translate into action.