Eddie Opara was born in Wandsworth, London in 1972. He studied graphic design at the and , where he received his MFA in 1997. He began his career as a designer at ATG and and worked as a senior designer/art director at before establishing his own studio, The Map Office, in 2005. He joined Pentagram鈥檚 New York office as partner in 2010.
Opara is a multi-faceted designer whose work encompasses strategy, design and technology. His projects have included the design of brand identity, publications, packaging, environments, exhibitions, interactive installations, websites, user interfaces and software, with many of his projects ranging across multiple media.
His clients have included Mellon Foundation, Nubank, Calendly, lululemon athletica, re-inc, OPPO, Realme, Simplisafe, Samsung, Dashlane, SFMOMA, The Baffler, The New Republic, Hisense, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, Grace Farms, the Menil Foundation, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Queens Museum, Corcoran Sunshine, Ennead Architects, SHoP Architects, Morgan Stanley, UCLA Architecture and Urban Design, Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM), Grimshaw Architects, (ARO) Architecture Research Office, Harry N. Abrams and Princeton Architectural Press.
Opara has won numerous awards including a from the Art Directors Club and honors from D&AD, the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), Type Directors Club, Tokyo Type Directors Club, the and Communication Arts. His work is in the permanent collection of the and has appeared in publications such as Wired, Fast Company, Creative Review, , and .
Opara is a senior critic at the . He has taught at the , the and the Philadelphia. He is a member of the distinguished design society, and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Art. Opara authored a book, Color Works, published by Rockport. He was named one of Fast Company鈥檚 100 Most Creative People in Business in 2012 and 2014, and was featured in Ebony Magazine鈥檚 Power 100 and Adweek鈥檚 Creative 100.
