Biography

Erik Schmitt is a multidisciplinary artist, designer, and photographer based in Berkeley, California. His work centers on self-initiated book projects and public art installations that merge his design background with a concept-driven artistic practice. Schmitt is particularly drawn to overlooked or marginalized subjects with cultural relevance, often investigating them through large photographic archives he builds himself.

He sees the book as a dynamic landscape—an open field for creative experimentation. From lithography to digital printing, and from guerrilla public interventions to the intimate scale of artists’ books, Schmitt explores form and structure as vehicles for meaning. His projects tease out hidden patterns, relationships, and cultural narratives embedded in place, text, and image.

Recent residencies at the Scuola Internazionale di Grafica in Venice, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, and the American Academy in Rome have deepened his interest in epigraphy and urban communication systems, influencing both the content and form of his work. These experiences have shaped publications like Roman Epigraphy and American Bauhaus, as well as public art pieces that provoke dialogue around gentrification and social inequality.

Schmitt’s work has been featured in The San Francisco Chronicle, CBS National News, El País, and The New Yorker, and is included in collections at institutions such as the Center for Fine Art Photography, Yale’s Haas Family Arts Library, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), Letterform Archive, Kunstbibliothek, Franklin Furnace Archive, Stanford University Rare Books Collection, and the Museum of Modern Art’s Artists’ Books Collection.

Professional Experience
studio1500, Partner and Creative Director, 2007–Present
California College of the Arts, Senior Lecturer, 2014–present
San Jose State University, Guest Lecturer, 2013, 2012
Art Institute of San Francisco, Guest Lecturer, 2012, 2011
University of California Berkeley, Guest Lecturer, 2011, 2010
Pentagram, Senior Designer, 2001–2007

Membership/Juries
Member of The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences.
Juror for the 20th, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd annual Webby Awards.
Juror for the 2018 Spark Awards.

Artist Residencies, Commissions, and Fellowships
Artist in Residence, Scuola Internazionale di Grafica, Venice, Italy, 2024
Visiting Artist, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, 2022
Finalist, Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, 2022
Finalist, Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, 2021
Finalist, Rome Prize, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, 2018
Fellow, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA, 2017—2018
Juried design competition winner, Market Street Prototyping Festival, San Francisco, CA, 2016
Juried design competition winner, Market Street Prototyping Festival, San Francisco, CA, 2015
Artist In Residence, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA, 2013

Workshops
Large Scale Digital Printing Workshop with Jon Zax, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, California, 2010
Painting Workshop with Jamie Brunson, California College of the Arts, Oakland, California, 2005
Darkroom Technique Workshop, California College of the Arts, Oakland, California, 2004
Photographic Techniques, University of California Extension, Berkeley, California, 2003
Owens Valley Photography Workshop with John Sexton, Carmel, California, 2002

Selected Group Exhibitions
The Center for Fine Art Photography, "Consumption", Fort Collins Colorado, July 2010
Cecile Moochnek Gallery, "Notations", Berkeley, California, May 2007

Published Books
40 Blows, Object Editions, Berkeley, California, 2025
Roman Epigraphy, Object Editions, 2025
American Bauhaus, Slanted Publishing, Karlsruhe, Germany, 2022

Work in Collections
Letterform Archive, San Francisco, California, 2024
Museo della Stampa e del Design Tipografico - Tipoteca, Cornuda, Italy, 2024
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 2022
Stanford University Rare Books Collection, Stanford, California, 2024
Rare books collection at the J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, 2024
Robert B. Haas Family Arts Library | Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2022
Museum of Modern Art / Artists' Books Collection, New York, NY, 2022
Franklin Furnace Archive, New York, NY, 2022
Kunstbibliothek Sitterwerk, St.Gallen, Switzerland, 2022
Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center (BMCM+AC), Asheville, NC, 2022
Letterform Archive, San Francisco, CA, 2022
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 2022
Environmental Design Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA 2022
Problem Library, San Francisco, CA, 2022
San Francisco Center for the Book, San Francisco, CA, 2022
Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit - MOCAD, Detroit, MI, 2022
Jonathan Laib, Gallery Director, David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY 2002
Claire Graves, President, The Webby Awards, New York, NY 2002
Mark Sinc, co-founder, The Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, Denver, CO, 2022

Awards and Honors
Photolucida Critical Mass finalist, Portland, OR, 2022
A' Design Award. Como, Italy, 2017
Webby Award. New York, NY, 2015
Graphis, New York, NY, 2008
Exhibitor Silver Award for exhibit design, Rochester, MN, 2008
HOW, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2007
The Western Art Directors Club. New York, NY 2002
The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Certificate of Excellence, New York, NY, 2001
The Industrial Designers Society of America, Great Falls, VA, 2001
International Design Excellence Award (IDEA), Herndon, VA 2001

Selected coverage within Publications
TXT, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2016
Signage Design, Braun Publishing, Berlin, Germany, 2012
Symbol, Laurence King Publishing, London, UK, 2011
Graphis Logo Design, New York, NY 2008
Graphis Design Annual, New York, NY 2008
Exhibitor, Rochester, MN, 2008
I.D. New York, NY, 2007
Logo, Laurence King Publishing, London, UK, 2007
How, Cincinnati, Ohio, 2007
Exhibitor, Rochester, MN, 2007
Step, New York, NY 2007
Exhibitor, Rochester, MN, 2005
AIGA 365 Year in Design 22, New York, NY, 2002