By Stephen Frykholm
Herman Miller Summer Picnic (Ice Cream) is a poster created by artist Stephen Frykholm. This poster is a part of a series of posters he created for the Herman Miller Furniture Company annual corporate picnics. The poster is currently not on display and is in the Curfman Gallery Storage.Stephen Frykholm was born in Seattle, Washington in 1942. In 1966 he began his career as a graphic designer after having worked in Aba, Nigeria with the Peace Corps at a trade school for girls. In Nigeria he learned how to screen print while he was trying to figure out skills to teach the students. When he returned to the United States he received his MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.After graduating, Frykholm was hired as the first in-house graphic designer at Herman Miller, Inc. in 1970. He was tasked with designing posters for the company’s annual picnic. Frykholm still works at Herman Miller, Inc. and serves as the Vice President of Creative Design. The picnic posters he has created for the company span over 20 years. Each poster had a limited edition printing of 20. The very first poster he created had a special second edition printing of 500 in 2015. Museums like MOMA and San Francisco Museum of Art have these posters in their collections. His work has also been published in books and periodicals nationally. Many of the original prints are being sold for $2000+.Frykholm has been the recipient of many awards, including graphic design and communications awards from the AIGA, the New York Art Directors Club, and American Center for Design, Communication Arts, Graphics, and Print. In 2005 he became an AIGA fellow and received the West Michigan advertising community’s Silver Medal Award in 2009.
