Design Studio
Morcos Key
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Explore Morcos Key's Work
The designers of Morcos Key—Wael Morcos and Jonathan Key—explored three important topics as RAND artists-in-residence: reimagining the U.S. workforce development system, how the world's refugees rely on digital technology, and understanding how stress can become toxic to a community over generations.
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A Portait of Community Stress ⟶
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Crossing the Digital Divide ⟶
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A 21st-Century Workforce Development System ⟶
Photo courtesy of Morcos Key
About Morcos Key
Morcos Key is a Brooklyn-based design studio collaborating with arts and cultural institutions, nonprofits, and commercial enterprises in North America and the Middle East. The team translates clients' stories into visual systems that demonstrate how thoughtful conversation and formal expression make for impactful design.
Jon(athan) Key is an artist, designer, and writer originally from Seale, Alabama. After receiving his BFA from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Jon began his design career at Grey Advertising in New York City before moving on to work with such clients and institutions as HBO, Nickelodeon, The Public Theater, and the Whitney Museum. As an educator, Jon has taught at Maryland Institute College of Art, Parsons and California College of the Arts, and currently teaches at Cooper Union. Jon is also a co-founder and design director at Codify Art, a multidisciplinary collective dedicated to creating, producing, supporting and showcasing work by artists of color, particularly women, queer, and trans artists of color. Jon was selected for Forbes “30 under 30” Art and Style list for 2020 and was the Frank Stanton Chair in Graphic Design at Cooper Union 2018–2019.
Wael Morcos is a graphic designer and type designer from Beirut, Lebanon. Upon receiving his BA in graphic design from Notre Dame University (Lebanon), he spent three years developing identities and Arabic-Latin bilingual typefaces, in addition to working in print and exhibition design. Wael received his MFA from RISD in 2013, after which he moved to New York and worked with several studios in the city before founding Morcos Key. Wael has been featured in Print Magazine's “15 under 30,” and was named a Young Gun by the Art Directors Club and an Ascender by the Type Directors Club.
Our work at Morcos Key oscillates between visual identities, where a brand narrative is distilled into a simple mark, and editorial design, where stories unfold over several pages. In both approaches, our job is to translate complex information into streamlined commentaries. We're very excited to be RAND's data artists-in-residence, and we look forward to exploring reports that tackle urgent and contemporary issues, with the goal to create new and engaging visual interpretations.
