Commercial Artisan is the Indianapolis-based graphic design studio of brothers James and Jon Sholly. Founded in 1990, the brothers adopted the name Commercial Artisan as an only slightly tongue-in-cheek tribute to the erstwhile notion of the commercial artist. Their work — for foundations, arts institutions, corporations, universities and friends — is rooted in a belief that there is a creative opportunity to be found in every assignment.
Commercial Article is the studio’s offshoot publication that explores design figures from Indiana whose lives and work have been under-documented. Commercial Artisan’s work has appeared in many publications including design journals Emigré and Eye. It has been honored by Communication Arts, Print Magazine, American Center for Design, AIGA, The Mohawk Show, and FPO (Under Consideration), among others.
Their projects have been included in the major museum exhibitions Mixing Messages (Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, 1996) and Graphic Design: Now In Production (Walker Art Center/Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, 2011). Commercial Artisan was the subject of the exhibition ink/paper/staples/glue at Herron School of Art and Design in 2013, and touring 2014-2015.