Kelli Anderson is a graphic artist and paper engineer who works with a wide range of mediums including infographics, branding design, pop up books and

risograph Risograph is a brand of digital duplicators manufactured by the Riso Kagaku Corporation. Released in Japan in 1980, it is designed mainly for high-volume photocopying and printing. It is sometimes called a printer-duplicator as newer models can ...

animations. She has taught art and graphic design at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

NYU New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a non-denominational all-male institutio ...

, and SFPC, given a

TED talk TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

on disruptive art, and has published 3 books. Her work has been published by NPR, MoMA, Chronicle Books, and The New Yorker.

Education

Anderson received a BFA at the

University of Louisiana at Lafayette The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (UL Lafayette, University of Louisiana, ULL, or UL) is a Public university, public research university in Lafayette, Louisiana, United States. It has the largest enrollment within the nine-campus Universi ...

, followed by an MFA and MS at the

Pratt Institute Pratt Institute is a private university with its main campus in Brooklyn, New York. It has an additional campus in Manhattan and an extension campus in Utica, New York at the Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. The institute was founded in 18 ...

of New York. She wrote her master's thesis on

nuclear waste Radioactive waste is a type of hazardous waste that contains radioactive material. It is a result of many activities, including nuclear medicine, nuclear research, nuclear power generation, nuclear decommissioning, rare-earth mining, and nuclear ...

markers.

Career

In 2013 Anderson illustrated The Human Body, a children's app by Tinybop Inc. Anderson collaborated as a graphic designer with

The Yes Men The Yes Men are a culture jamming activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. To date, t ...

on a counterfeit

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

newspaper. The hoax involved blanketing New York City with fake editions of the paper completely rewritten with articles describing a utopian present reality. Anderson also designed for publications related to Occupy Wall Street. In 2015, Anderson was granted the

Adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

Creative Residency which included being a keynote speaker at Adobe Max. She also spent five years working part-time in Special Collections at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Located in Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 21 interconn ...

in Manhattan, and as an Osher Fellow at

Exploratorium The Exploratorium is a museum of science museum, science, technology museum, technology, and art museum, arts in San Francisco, California. Founded by physicist and educator Frank Oppenheimer in 1969, the museum was originally located in the ...

. Anderson's work spans a broad range of digital and tangible mediums, and from the playful to the political or a mix of both. Her infographics include Buying a Gun in America for

Mayors Against Illegal Guns Everytown for Gun Safety is an American non-profit organization which advocates for gun control and against gun violence. Everytown was formed in 2013 due to a merger between ''Mayors Against Illegal Guns'' and ''Moms Demand Action for Gun Sens ...

, which addressed the ease with which a gun can be obtained. Anderson is also well known for her interactive paper work such as “The Paper Record Player”, a wedding invitation that plays music; and her books "This Book Is a Planetarium" and "This Book is a Camera" which was published by the

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

. In 2013, she created the installation Book Covers, Re-imagined in Paper, a 100% paper installation done for the

New York City Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

with

Maria Popova Maria Popova (; born 28 July 1984) is a Bulgarian-born, American-based essayist, book author, poet, and writer of literary and arts commentary and cultural criticism that has found wide appeal both for her writing and for the visual stylistics th ...

. Anderson has taught paper engineering at

as well as typography and

animation. There is a strong theme of bringing the 2 dimensional to life in Anderson's work, exemplified in her sculptural paper pieces and pop-ups. This theme is also evident in her animation work where a handcrafted quality is often present such as in her work for

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's video "Talking While Female" or her music video for

They Might be Giants They Might Be Giants, often abbreviated as TMBG, is an American alternative rock and Children's music, children's band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as ...

which used a combination of stop motion and compositing techniques. Even when working with the purely digital, such as creating interactive anatomy for the Tinybop Human Body app, Anderson's work retains a quality of texture and tangibility. She has also designed for Russ n' Daughters and Momofuku, and

Munchery Munchery Inc. was an online food ordering and meal delivery service that served parts of San Francisco, Seattle, and New York City.Gold, AmandCook Your Week: Munchery and Belcampo Team Up''San Francisco Chronicle''. July 21, 2015 The company sh ...

. Recently, she has been a featured speaker at MIT Media Lab and animated in collaboration with

Yo Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma (born October 7, 1955) is a French-born American cellist. Born to Chinese parents in Paris, he was regarded as a child prodigy there and began to study the cello with his father at age four. At the age of seven, Ma moved with his fami ...

on a series of

Richard Feynman Richard Phillips Feynman (; May 11, 1918 – February 15, 1988) was an American theoretical physicist. He is best known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics, the physics of t ...

poems.

Works

* The Human Body, published by Tinybop Inc. (2003) * This Book is a Planetarium, published by

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...

(2017) * This Book is a Camera, published by

(2018) * Powers of Ten, with Adam Pickard (2022) * Alphabet in Motion, An ABC Pop-up Book on How Letters Get their Shape (Summer 2025)

Awards

* Nominated for the Cooper Hewitt / Smithsonian National Design Award (in Communication Design), 2023 * Ars Electronica Award of Distinction, 2009

References

External links

*
Amazon.com author profile

ted.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Anderson, Kelli Living people American women graphic designers American graphic designers Artists from New York City People from New Orleans Pratt Institute alumni American political artists TED (conference) 21st-century American women writers Year of birth missing (living people)