Limits of Visibility at USC School of Architecture

Designer Willie Ip used an early version of Focal to bring some warmth to the exhibition graphics for Limits of Visibility at the USC School of Architecture, part of the University of Southern California (USC):

The history of the Salton Sea is one of flows and fluctuations. Periodically, when the Colorado River overflows its boundaries, giant lakes form—the Salton Sea and, before that, the larger Lake Cahuilla. These bodies of water support vibrant ecosystems, nomadic tribes, agriculture, and all manner of lives and economies. Then, years later, these riverbeds silt up, the river is diverted south, and the region dries up. In the same way, since the scope of the environmental crisis in the Salton Sea first revealed itself in the ’70s, efforts to hold back these shifts and ameliorate their effects have oscillated. Task forces are set up, studies are commissioned, management and renewal plans are outlined. But before real change can be implemented interest wanes, funding is withdrawn, and focus shifts to another, apparently more pressing crisis. How, then, can real change be achieved in a region with rapidly changing environmental and lived conditions, landscape is fragile and funding is precarious?