My graphic design education effectively began on Flickr. Class critiques were conducted there, and it was the first place that I really started to explore all the ways that people were communicating visually. It was on Flickr that I also began to explore design history, and started to connect the dots between the graphic trends of the moment and the masters that these trends were emulating. It was also around this time that a professor introduced me to Ellen McFadden’s Flickr account.

It blew my mind.

Within this Flickr account lies one of the most comprehensive graphic design history references I have ever come across. Spanning decades, movements, styles and technological advances Ellen McFadden has succeeded in collecting and cataloging the history of the visual communication craft. Not only does she present the material in a meticulously organized fashion, she also provides the viewer with her own comments on many of the pieces. This collection paired with McFadden’s expert observations combine to become as exhaustive a design history course as you will find in most undergraduate classrooms around the country.

This is the kind of collection that only a true curator and educator could put together; Someone who so values sharing knowledge above all else. McFadden, born in Portland, Oregon has devoted 30 years of her adult life to design and art education all over the country. After studying calligraphy at Reed College under the master calligrapher Lloyd Reynolds (the same Lloyd Reynolds who Steve Jobs credits as having imparted to him his love of typography) Ellen went on to teach in Washington, Idaho and Iowa before returning to the Pacific Northwest and ultimately landing back in her hometown of Portland.

This is where the plot thickens. If Ellen McFadden were just an educator and curator she would have more than done her part to bring knowledge and beauty into the world. But there’s more.

She paints. In her “retirement” Ellen has turned to painting these incredible, geometric pieces full-time. Her paintings feel like some sort of Pendleton print for the new millenium expertly balancing color and pattern. The results feel incredibly fresh and graphic with a look of something that might have been produced digitally, but it wasn’t.

I’ve intentionally saved the links for last because if I had given you access to Ellen’s Flickr page or Personal work, you would have left immediately and never returned to finish my post.