Joe Erceg enjoyed a five decade-long career as a designer in Portland, working in his early years at Studio 1030, and in his later years as the magazine designer for University of Portland. Joe was one of the first people interviewed for this project, and he spoke at the 2014 Design Week event, Designers of the Mad Men Era about his experience in the early years of his career. Below are a collection of images, graphics, and articles from a variety of sources.
This entry is incomplete. If you have more to add to this entry, or a recommendation on who we should feature on Portland Design History, please reach out to: melissa@meldel.com.
Arts & Culture Collection Courtesy of Matt Erceg
All work in this collection by Joe Erceg, with scanning made possible by PSU grant.
Slides 1-8: Joe Erceg's designs for promotional posters for the Portland Center for the Visual Arts (PCVA) in the 1970s and 1980s.
Slide 9: Poster for Gallery West group show from 1978.
Slide 10: Poster for Northwest Portland Art Festival, year unknown.
Slide 11: 1977 poster for ArtQuake, an outdoor arts festival that started in Portland in 1997 and ran through 1995.
Slide 12: Northwest Film & Video Festival, put on by the Northwest Fill Study Center, 1980.
Source for this collection: Matt Erceg, with scanning made possible by PSU grant.
Assorted Client Work Collection Courtesy of Matt Erceg
Slide 1: Portland Council, World Without War poster. World Without War Councils were established in in the 1960s to "seek alternatives to organization for war.
Slide 2: Lewis & Clark brochure.
Slide 3: Ski Multorpor Mountain poster for SkiBowl.
Slide 4: Pacifico motorcycle parts poster.
Slide 5-6: Louisiana-Pacific Invitational poster from 1981 & 1982 at Memorial Coliseum. The '81 poster says, "If you’re not going to Wimbledon in 1981, then we’ll bring it to you here." Source for the 1981 poster is The Smithsonian Record ID chndm_1981-29-288.
Slide 7: Inaugural TriMet Light Rail Poster 1986.
All work in this collection by Joe Erceg. Source for this collection: Matt Erceg unless otherwise noted, with scanning made possible by PSU grant.
Joe Erceg around 1961 when he was a designer at Studio 1030.
Joe and his son Matt in 2014 after an interview.
Entry published in a DCI collateral piece. A "Politzer Prize" is presumedly one that is named by designer Charles Politz.
Caption by Nina Pavlich "For 14 years, the back of the Fleischner was notorious for a huge arrow pointing across the street at Import Plaza. In 1976, the Naitos replaced the ad with a mural of a butterfly. It was composed of large dots, so that the image of the butterfly was only visible after moving back from it. It was the result of brainstorming between Joe Erceg, a graphic designer whose office was in the Merchant Hotel and Bill Naito. Bill considered the image of a trolley car or the Skidmore Fountain, but ultimately, the two decided on a pointillism-style butterfly."
Joe's promotional sheets from Studio 1030.
Article in Step-by-Step magazine about Joe Erceg, 1986.
