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INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES OF GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

”

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES OF GRAPHIC DESIGNERS

” Edited by Pornthip Tiraratana

Introduction The Timeline

PAUL

Rand

01

I

III

MILTON

STEFAN

BRADBURY

19

25

Glaser

Sagmeister

MATTHEW

LESTER

13 Carter

35

Beall

41

Thompson

MASSIMO

Viganelli

47

SAUL

Bass

O7 DAVID

Carson

31 JAN

Tschichold

55

HERBERT WOLFGANG Bayer

WEINGART

IVAN

#Designer Confessions

59 Chermayeff

71

65 77

Index Bibliography

81

83

CONTENTS

I

INTRODUCTION Simple quotes can hold timeless and moving lessons. As designers, we’re lucky to have an exceptional pool of people who have spearheaded the industry over the years, crafting clever insights based on years of experience. Our hope is that these quotes will hope you approach your workday with a sense of inspiration and focus on what you really want to achieve. This book includes inspirational quotes, biographies and works of famous graphic designers and AIGA medalists who had a significant impact on the practice of graphic design in the United States and exceptional achievements in their careers.

“Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers” is a book from designers to designers

II

“

EVERYTHING IS DESIGN. EVERYTHING!” — PAUL RAND

III

HISTORY OF GRAPHIC DESIGN Graphic design, the art and profession of selecting and arranging visual elements—such as typography, images, symbols, and colours—to convey a message to an audience. Sometimes graphic design is called “visual communications,” a term that emphasizes its function of giving form—e.g., the design of a book, advertisement, logo, or Web site—to information. An important part of the designer’s task is to combine visual and verbal elements into an ordered and effective whole. Graphic design is therefore a collaborative discipline: writers produce words and photographers and illustrators create images that the designer incorporates into a complete visual communication.

15000 BC—2000 BC The invention of Writing

1000 BC The Asian Contribution

2000 BC—1000 BC Alphabets

1399—1799 Illuminated Manuscripts

1600—1700 An Epoch of Typographic Genius

1500 The German Illustrated Book

1400 —1600 Renaissance Graphic Design

1400 Printing Comes to Europe

IV

SEP 30, 1452 JAN 1, 1440 Gutenburg’s Printing Press 42 Line Bible

1700—1850 Graphic Design and The Industrial Revolution JAN 1, 1722 Caslon

1920—1935 The Bauhaus And The New Typography

1800—1950 The Arts and Crafts 1880—1901 Art Nouveau Movement and Its Heritage JAN 1, 1798 Bodoni

JAN 1, 1875 TradeMark Registration Act

JUL 1, 1886 Linotype

1896—1972 The Genesis of 21th Century Design

FEB 5, 1909 The Futurists

JAN 1, 1917 Association of American Advertising Agencies

JAN 1, 1919 The Bauhaus

1910—1930 A New Language of Form

1900—1925 Pictorial Modernism

1900—1930 The Influence of Modern Art

1936—1955 The international Typographic Style

1945—1970 The New York School

1950—1960 Corporate Identity and Visual Systems

1922 The term Graphic Design is first used.

1935—1950 The Modern Movement in America

1954 Adrian Frutiger releases the Univers

1990—2014 The Digital Revolution 1990 Photoshop Version 1.0 released

2014—present

1985—2014 National Visions within a Global Dialogue

1955 Saul Bass, Man with the Golden Arms

1975—1985 Postmodern Design

1956 Paul Rand designed IBM logo

MAY 12, 1974 Milton Glaser

1960—1970 The Conceptual Image

01

“

DESIGN CAN BE ART. DESIGN CAN BE AESTHETICS. DESIGN IS SO SIMPLE, THAT’S WHY IT IS SO COMPLICATED.” ­——PAUL RAND

02

PAUL RAND

03 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

PAUL RAND PAUL RAND was an eminent twentieth century American graphic designer and art director. He was the pioneer of iconic corporate logo designs for major firms, including IBM, ABC, Morningstar, Inc., NeXT Computer, Yale University and Enron. He was an avid practitioner of Swiss Style of graphic designing in American advertising industry.

On August 15, 1914, in Brooklyn, New York, Rand was born as Peretz Rosenbaum. Since a very early age, he had a keen interest in painting and designing which reflected through his painting signs for his father’s grocery store and for his school events. As his father was of the view that art alone would be insufficient to provide a satisfying lifestyle for his son, so he enrolled him at Manhattan’s Harren High School.

While studying there, Paul also attended night classes at the Pratt Institute from 1929 to 1932. He attended several art schools in succession such as The New School for Design, the Art Students League and Yale University in Connecticut. Notwithstanding his rich academic career in arts, Rand developed his graphic sense through self-education largely, as he voraciously read the European magazines, discovering the works of Cassandre and László Moholy-Nagy.

first line: AIGA (1982), Colorforms (1959), NeXT (1986) second line: UPS (1961), Westinghouse (1960), Yale (1985) third line: Esquire (1938), ABC (1962), IBM (1972)

PAUL RAND

04

Subsequently, Rand began his career as a

Despite the fact that Rand earned his ultimate

part-time stock image creator for a syndicate.

success by designing corporate logos, however,

Soon his class assignments and part-time job

the source of his reputation is based on his

rendered him to assemble a distinguished

initial work on page design. In mid 1930s he was

portfolio. His work was highly influenced by

requested by Apparel Arts (now GQ) magazine

Sachplakat, the German advertising style and

to develop the page layout for their anniversary

Gustav Jensen’s works. During this time he also

issue. Later he was offered a job at another

decided to cloak his Jewish origin by shortening

prestigious magazine, Esquire-Coronet, as an

and modernizing his name Peretz Rosenbaum

art director. After first refusal, he accepted the

as Paul Rand. The decision worked in his best

offer, managing the fashion pages for Esquire.

interest as he became the most enduring brand

During 1950s and 1960s, Paul Rand became

name for graphic designing. Shortly after, he

a brand name for logo designing in corporate

became a success story and during his twenties

industry. Many of the above mentioned firms

his graphic work earned international recogni-

owe their graphic designing heritage to him. In

tion. One of his notable designs was featured on

1956, IBM became one of the companies that

the cover of Direction magazine, which he created

truly defined his corporate identity. He revised

free of charge in honor of artistic freedom.

the IBM logo design in 1960 and yet again in 1972 with the famous stripes pattern.

“

Among these young Americans it seems to be that Paul Rand is one of the best and most capable [. . .] He is a painter, lecturer, industrial designer, [and] advertising artist who draws his knowledge and creativeness from the resources of this country. He is an idealist and a realist, using the language of the poet and business man. He thinks in terms of need and function. He is able to analyze his problems but his fantasy is boundless.”

——LASZLO MOHOLY-NAGY

05 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

MINUTE MAN poster (1974), (42 x 28 in.)

PAUL RAND

“ DON’T TRY TO Steve Jobs, on the NeXT Computer corporate BE ORIGINAL, identity project. The logo containing a simple two JUST TRY TO dimensional black box presenting the four-letter company’s name manifested a visual harmony.

BE GOOD” Steve Jobs admired Rand’s graphic creativity and Moreover, Rand’s graphic genius is also evident

from his collaboration with the technology giant,

called him “the greatest living graphic designer.”

Besides art direction, he taught at Yale University,

—PAUL RAND

as a Professor of Graphic Design. Additionally, he wrote several crucial works on design such as Design, Form and Chaos, Thoughts on Design and Design and the Play Instinct. In his final years he recorded his memoirs and focused on designing. At the age of 82, Paul Rand died of cancer in 1996 and was interred at Beth El Cemetery.

Jacqueline Cochran 1943-1946 advertisement Benzedrine 1943 advertisement

06

07

“

DESIGN IS THINKING MADE VISUAL.”

­—SAUL BASS

08

SAUL BASS

09 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

SAUL BASS Saul Bass was a great 20th-century American graphic designer, who created the corporate image and memorably stunning logos for numerous American companies.

Saul Bass was, first and foremost a pioneering 1950s Hollywood designer, the founder of conceptual cover design, who created the motion picture title sequences and posters for a great many films.

Saul Bass developed a simplified, symbolic design language that visually communicated all the essential elements of a film. Bass designed emblematic posters that made a stunning visual impact, thus revolutionizing animated film graphics and the visuals of film advertizing.

Born in the Bronx, Saul Bass was given a scholarship to the Art Students League in 1936. From 1944 until 1946 Saul Bass studied at Brooklyn College.

He worked in New York as a freelance commercial artist for advertizing agencies and companies, including Warner Bros. In 1946 Saul Bass went to Los Angeles, where he continued to work as a commercial artist. By 1952 he had a practice of his own, which was registered from 1955 as Saul Bass & Associates.

SAUL BASS

In 1954 he received his first commission from the director Otto Preminger to design the title sequence for his film “Carmen Jones”. This commission was followed in 1955 by others from Robert Aldrich and the Billy Wilder Film “The Seven Year Itch”. That same year Saul Bass designed the title sequence for Preminger’s “The Man with the Golden Arm” and it caused a sensation. Saul Bass became the leading title designer in Hollywood; the directors Bass worked in this capacity include Alfred Hitchcock (“Vertigo”, “North by Northwest”, “Psycho”), from 1960 Stanley Kubrick (“Spartacus”, “The Shining”), from 1990 for Martin Scorsese (“Good Fellas”, “Cape Fear”, “The Age of Innocence”, “Casino”); and, in 1993 Steven Spielberg: the title sequence for “Schindler’s List”.

Between 1991 and 1996 Saul Bass also designed the posters for the Oscar Awards ceremony. In addition to his work for Hollywood, Saul Bass has created the corporate image of numerous companies, including United Airlines, AT&T, Minolta, Esso, BP, and Continental Airlines, for which he also designed the company logos.

10

“

11

I WANT TO THINGS, EV CARES, AS THINGS. TH ——SAUL BASS

MAKE BEAUTIFUL VEN IF NOBODY OPPOSED TO UGLY HAT’S MY INTENT.”

12

13

“

THERE ARE THREE RESPONSES TO A PIECE OF DESIGN – YES, NO, AND WOW! WOW IS THE ONE TO AIM FOR.”

­——MILTON GLASER

14

MILTON GLASER

15 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

MILTON GLASER Milton Glaser is the embodiment of American graphic design during the latter half of this century. His presence and impact on the profession internationally is formidable.

Immensely creative and articulate, he is a modern renaissance man — one of a rare breed of intellectual designer-illustrators, who brings a depth of understanding and conceptual thinking, combined with a diverse richness of visual language, to his highly inventive and individualistic work.

Born in 1929, Milton Glaser was educated at the High School of Music and Art and the Cooper Union art school in New York and, via a Fulbright Scholarship, the Academy of Fine Arts in Bologna, Italy. He co-founded the revolutionary Pushpin Studios in 1954, founded New York Magazine with Clay Felker in 1968, established Milton Glaser, Inc. in 1974, and teamed with Walter Bernard in 1983 to form the publication design firm WBMG. Throughout his career, Glaser has been a prolific creator of posters and prints. His artwork has been featured in exhibits worldwide, including one-man shows at both the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

MILTON GLASER

His work is in the permanent collections of many museums. Glaser also is a renowned graphic and architectural designer with a body of work ranging from the iconic logo to complete graphic and decorative programs for the restaurants in the World Trade Center in New York. Glaser is an influential figure in both the design and education communities and has contributed essays and granted interviews extensively on design.

Among many awards throughout the years, he received the 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, for h=is profound and meaningful long-term contribution to the

“ SOLVING ANY PROBLEM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING RIGHT.” ——MILTON GLASER

contemporary practice of design.

POSTER, DYLAN, 1966

16

17 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

Milton Glaser Exhibition, Musees Royaux de Belgigue Artle Moderne Place Royal, 1/1000 Bruxelles Oct 15 to Nov 21 1976

“ FAIL MORE OFTEN

IN ORDER TO FIND OUT WHAT YOU’RE CAPABLE OF LEARNING” ——MILTON GLASER

MILTON GLASER

18

19

“

YOU CAN HAVE AN ART EXPERIENCE IN FRONT OF A REMBRANDT… OR IN FRONT OF A PIECE OF GRAPHIC DESIGN.” ——STEFAN SAGMEISTER

20

STEFAN SAGMEISTER

21 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

STEFAN SAGMEISTER Stefan Sagmeister is a renowned Austrian-born US based contemporary graphic designer and typographer. He is the co-founder of the famous design firm, Sagmeister & Walsh, which he established in partnership with Jessica Walsh. His intriguing and provocative designs redefined the status of graphic designers. Some of his notable designs are showcased on the album covers of The Rolling Stones, Pat Metheny, David Byrne and OK Go. On August 6, 1962, Stefan Sagmeister was born in Bregenz, Austria. After graduation from high-school, he enrolled himself in an engineering college. However, he later changed his mind and opted for graphic designing course. Since an early age, Sagmeister had a passion for designing, thus it is as unsurprising that he began his designing career at the age of 15.

He worked for an Austrian left-wing youth magazine, Alphorn. While he was covering Alphorn’s Anarchy issue, he had an ingenious idea to exercise the D-I-Y graphic for the first time.He persuaded his fellow students to lie down on the playground forming the letter A, and took a picture from school roof for the poster of the magazine.

“ ANY EXCUSE TO

GET AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER SCREEN IS WELCOME” —STEFAN SAGMEISTER

Stefan Sagmeister

The Happy Show by graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister, blurs the boundaries between art and graphic design with a great mix of installations, imaginative typographical displays, and interactive artworks.

22

23 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

Lou Reed poster, 1996 Client: Warner Bros.

Records Inc.

Stefan Sagmeister

24

“ I DIDN’T THINK THAT PERSONAL STYLE HAD MUCH VALUE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN.” ­——STEFAN SAGMEISTER

At the age of 19, he applied for the University of

There he continued to pursue graphic design-

Applied Arts Vienna to study graphic designing.

ing and then moved to Hong Kong in 1991.

Although, at first he was refused the admission

He was landed a job as a typographer in an

on the basis of his amateur drawing, his applica-

advertising agency. In 1992, the agency was

tion was accepted on second attempt. In 1987,

asked to design a poster for the 4As advertising

owing to his remarkable performance, he earned

awards ceremony. Sagmeister had a strange

a Fulbright scholarship for the New York based

sense of humor and never took issues of

Pratt Institute. For mandatory military services,

propriety into consideration. So when he

Sagmeister returned to Austria after three year

presented an inappropriate and unethical

of studies in United States. He chose to do com-

poster for the event he was lambasted by

munity service for refugee center instead and

the audience. A few months later, he decided

afterwards remained in Austria for a while.

to move back to New York City.

25

“

TYPE CAN BE A TOOL, A TOY AND A TEACHER; IT CAN PROVIDE A MEAN OF LIVELIHOOD, A HOBBY FOR RELAXATION, AN INTELLECTUAL STIMULANT AND A SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION.”

——BRADBURY THOMPSON

26

BRADBURY THOMPSON

27 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

BRADBURY THOMPSON Bradbury Thompson was truly a master of almost every aspect of the design profession. He studied printing production, was an art director for Mademoiselle magazine, designed books, pushed the boundaries of conventional typography and taught design at Yale University. He designed 60+ issues of Westvaco Inspirations for the Westvaco Paper Corporation.

His designs reached thousands of designers, printers and typographers.

Born in 1911 in Topeka, Kansas and educated at Washburn University Thompson stayed in touch with the university throughout his career. From 1969-1979 Thompson worked together with Washburn to create the Washburn Bible. The book was the most significant development in Bible typography since Gutenberg first published his masterpiece in 1455. Another significant point in his career, in the field of typography, was his publication of Alphabet 26, which was labeled as a monoalphabet. It contained only 26 unique characters, case was established by size only instead of entirely new characters (i.e. r/R, e/E, a/A). Thompson’s work garnered him the highest award of every major design organization including AIGA, the Art Directors Club and the Type Directors Club. He died in 1995.

Bradbury Thompson

left page: UCLA Extension, 1990 right page: Feelings, The o’jays and Rain

28

29 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

“

TYPE IS A THING OF CONSTANT INTEREST TO ME. IT IS SOMETIMES A SERIOUS AND USEFUL TOOL, EMPLOYED TO DELIVER A MESSAGE, SELL A SPECIFIC ARTICLE, OR GIVE LIFE TO AN IDEA. AT OTHER TIMES IT IS A PLAYTHING THAT AFFORDS PERSONAL AMUSEMENT AND RECREATION. IT IS FUN TO PRODUCE FRESH DESIGNS AND SPONTANEOUS IDEAS WITH LETTERS AND NUMBERS —

BY THEMSELVES, OR TOGETHER WITH OTHER GRAPHIC OBJECTS. TYPE IS A MEDIUM OF PHILOSOPHICAL ENJOYMENT. IT IS INTERESTING TO DISCOVER TYPOGRAPHIC RULES CONTAINING INCONSISTENCIES IN LOGIC, WHICH ARE IN USE ONLY BECAUSE OF TRADITION. IT IS ALSO INTERESTING TO PONDER THE ORIGIN OF THESE ERRORS, THE PRACTICAL REASONS FOR THEIR PERPETUATION, AND TO SUGGEST REMEDIES.

NOT A

Bradbury Thompson 30

ALWAYS ABOUT TYPE ——BRADBURY THOMPSON

AN INTEREST IN TYPE PROVIDES A BROADER KNOWLEDGE OF HISTORY, INCLUDING THE APPRECIATION OF SUCH RELATED ARTS AS PAINTING, ARCHITECTURE AND LITERATURE — AND EVEN BUSINESS AND POLITICS. THIS AFFORDS OPPORTUNITY FOR PLEASANT ROMANTIC INDULGENCE. AT THE SAME TIME, IT DEVELOPS CONFIDENCE IN ONE’S PRACTICAL ABILITY TO SPECIFY APPROPRIATE TYPEFACES TO ACCOMPANY CREATIVE WORKS OF SPECIFIC PERIODS. IN SHORT, TYPE CAN BE A TOOL, A TOY AND A TEACHER; IT CAN PROVIDE A MEANS OF LIVELIHOOD, A HOBBY FOR RELAXATION, AN INTELLECTUAL STIMULANT, AND A SPIRITUAL SATISFACTION. I BELIEVE AN AVID INTEREST IN TYPE NECESSARILY INCLUDES A ZEST FOR EVERYDAY LIFE.”

31

“

GRAPHIC DESIGN WILL SAVE THE WORLD RIGHT AFTER ROCK AND ROLL DOES.” ——DAVID CARSON

32

DAVID CARSON

33 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

DAVID CARSON David Carson, (born September 8, 1955, Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.), American graphic designer, whose unconventional style revolutionized visual communication in the 1990s. Carson came to graphic design relatively late in life. He was a competitive surfer—ranked eighth in the world—and a California high-school teacher when, at age 26, he enrolled in a two-week commercial design class. Discovering a new calling, he briefly enrolled

”

SOME PEOPLE HATE LIME-GREEN; RED HAS ALL THIS EMOTIONAL BAGGAGE. BLUE SEEMS TO BE OVERALL ONE OF THE MORE POSITIVE COLORS, AND A LITTLE MORE SERIOUS THAN YELLOW.”

——DAVID CARSON

at a commercial art school before working as a designer at a small surfer magazine, Self and Musician.

He then spent four years as a part-time designer for the magazine Transworld Skateboarding, which enabled him to experiment. His characteristic chaotic spreads with overlapped photos and mixed and altered type fonts drew both admirers and detractors. Photographer Albert Watson, for example, declared, “He uses type the way a painter uses paint, to create emotion, to express ideas.” Others felt that the fractured presentation obscured the message it carried.

“ OVERALL, PEOPLE

ARE READIN G LESS.” ——DAVID CARSON

David Carson

top left: international type symposium, bangkok, 2014, poster design and foto:dc top right: Beach Culture by David Carson, 1990 bottom: David Carson, proof for a Pepsi-Cola ad, 1996.

34

35

“

TYPE IS A BEAUTIFUL GROUP OF LETTERS, NOT A GROUP OF BEAUTIFUL LETTERS.” ——MATTHEW CARTER

36

MATTHEW CARTER

37 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

MATTHEW CARTER Matthew Carter is a type designer with more than forty years’ experience of typographic technologies ranging from hand-cut punches to computer fonts.

After a long association with the Linotype companies he was a co-founder in 1981 of Bitstream Inc., the digital typefoundry, where he worked for ten years.

He is now a principal of Carter & Cone Type Inc., in Cambridge, Massachusetts, designers and producers of original typefaces.

His type designs include ITC Galliard, Snell Roundhand, and Shelley scripts, Helvetica Compressed, Olympian (for newspaper text), Bell Centennial Address (for the US telephone directories), ITC Charter, and faces for Greek, Hebrew, Cyrillic, and Devanagari. For Carter & Cone he has designed Mantinia, Sophia, Elephant, Big Caslon, Alisal, and Miller.

Carter & Cone have produced types on commission for Apple, Microsoft (the screen fonts Verdana, Tahoma, and Georgia), Time magazine, Wired, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, El PaĂ­s, and the Walker Art Center.

Carter in 1959 (cover of The New Mechanick Excercises, number 8) Right page (top): Mantinia, designed at Carter & Cone Type Right page (bottom): Big Caslon

Matthew Carter

Carter is a Royal Designer for Industry, a member of AGI, chairman of the type designers’ committee of ATypI, and a Senior Critic on Yale’s Graphic Design faculty. He has received the Frederic W. Goudy Award for outstanding contribution to the printing industry, the Middleton Award from the American Center for Design, a Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design, and medals from the AIGA and the Type Directors Club. He holds the honorary degree of Doctor of Fine Arts.

38

39 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

“

Click-throughs on a video are often much higher than a standard website listing on the front page of Google. If you see a video in the Google results... it stands out a lot more than a regular website listing does, so [it] tends to attract more clicks.”

——MATTHEW CARTER

Matthew Carter

Bell Centennial, an elagant, space-saving font designed for use in American telephone directories

40

41

“

THE MOMENT CLIENTS REALIZE THAT REVISIONS ARE NOT AN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFET, SUDDENLY THEY REALIZE THEY ARE NOT HUNGRY.” ­——LESTER BEALL

42

LESTER BEALL

43 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

LESTER BEALL Lester Beall, A man with a very technology-oriented background, Beall grew up playing with Ham radios and creating his own wireless sets. He graduated with a Ph.D in the History of Fine Art and the years following his graduation found him expressing an interest in modern art movements such as Surrealism, Constructivism and Dadaism. His work as an advertiser and graphic designer quickly gained international recognition and the most productive years of his career, during the 1930s and 40s, saw many successes in both fields.

His clear and concise use of typography was highly praised both in the United States and abroad.

Throughout his career he used bold primary colors and illustrative arrows and lines in a graphic style that became easily recognizable as his own. He eventually moved to rural New York and set up an office, and home, at a premises that he and his family called “Dumbarton Farm”. He remained at the farm

Beall’s U.S. Rural Electricification Administration poster series, 1941

Lester Beall

44

45 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

“

THE DESIGNER’S ROLE IN TH AND PROTECTION OF THE TR AS PRE-CREATIVE, CREATIVE —LESTER BEALL

Lester Beall

46

HE DEVELOPMENT, APPLICATION RADEMARK MAY BE DESCRIBED E AND POST-CREATIVE.”

47

“

IF YOU CAN DESIGN ONE THING, YOU CAN DESIGN EVERYTHING.” ­­­——Massimo Vignelli

48

MASSIMO VIGANELLI

49 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

MASSIMO VIGNELLI Massimo was born in Milan in 1931. It was there that he

“

first studied art and architecture, until he came to America

in 1957. In 1960, together with his wife Lella Vignelli, he established the Vignelli Office of Design and Architecture in Milan. in 1971 they formed Vignelli Associates, and in 1978, Vignelli Designs. His work covers nearly every field of design including advertising, identity, packaging, product, industrial, interior and architectural design. An avid fan of modernism, his work is always very clear and concise with no clutter or unnecessary material.

His first major foray into the field of identity and branding was through Unimark International, which quickly became one of the largest design studios in the world. He has designed identities for international corporations including American Airlines (which is the only airline to have not changed their identity in the past 50 years), Bloomingdales and Knoll. He favors a clarity in design and is a huge fan of using Helvetica, which can be seen in much of his work.

He has had work published all over the world and has several items in the permanent collections of various museums including the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper-Hewitt Museum. Together with his wife he has established a legacy of design that lives on through their work and their continued practice at their office in New York.

YOU CAN SAY, “I LOVE YOU,” IN HELVETICA. AND YOU CAN SAY IT WITH HELVETICA EXTRA LIGHT IF YOU WANT TO BE REALLY FANCY. OR YOU CAN SAY IT WITH THE EXTRA BOLD IF IT’S REALLY INTENSIVE AND PASSIONATE, YOU KNOW, AND IT MIGHT WORK.” ­­­ ——Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Viganelli

The map by Massimo Vignelli that was riddled with anomalies. Credit Metropolitan Transportation Authority

50

51 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

Massimo Viganelli

POSTER, KNOLL INTERNATIONAL, 1967 designed by Massimo Vignelli

52

53

“

PERFECT TYPOGRAPHY IS CERTAINLY THE MOST ELUSIVE OF ALL ARTS. SCULPTURE IN STONE ALONE COMES NEAR IT IN OBSTINACY.” —JAN TSCHICHOLD

54

JAN TSCHICHOLD

55 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

JAN TSCHICHOLD Tschichold claimed that he was one of the most powerful influences on 20th century typography. There are few who would attempt to deny that statement. The son of a sign painter and trained in calligraphy, Tschichold began working with typography at a very early age. Raised in Germany, he worked closely with Paul Renner (who designed Futura) and fled to Switzerland during the rise of the Nazi party. His emphasis on new typography and sans-serif typefaces was deemed a threat to the cultural heritage of Germany, which traditionally used Blackletter Typography and the Nazis seized much of his work before he was able to flee the country.

“ WHITE SPACE IS TO BE REGARDED AS AN ACTIVE ELEMENT, NOT A PASSIVE BACKGROUND.” ­——JAN TSCHICHOLD

Jan Tschichold

When Tschichold wrote Die Neue Typographie he set forth rules for standardization of practices relating to modern type usage. He condemned all typefaces except for sans-serif types, advocated standardized sizes of paper and set forth guidelines for establishing a typographic hierarchy when using type in design. While the text still has many relative uses today, Tschichold eventually returned to a classicist theory in which centered designs and roman typefaces were favored for blocks of copy.

He spent part of his career with Penguin Books and while he was there he developed a standardized practice for creating the covers for all of the books produced by Penguin. He personally oversaw the development of more than 500 books between the years 1947-49. Every period of his career has left a lasting impression on how designers think about and use typography, and it will continue to affect them into the future.

56

57 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

Penquin Books cover designed by Tschichold

Jan Tschichold

Die Konstruktivisten (The Constructivists) (Poster for exhibition in the Kunsthalle Basel)1937

58

59

“

JUST AS TYPOGRAPHY IS HUMAN SPEECH TRANSLATED INTO WHAT CAN BE READ, SO PHOTOGRAPHY IS THE TRANSLATION OF REALITY INTO A READABLE IMAGE.” ­——HERBERT BAYER

60

HERBERT BAYER

61 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

HERBERT BAYER Bayer was both a student and a teacher at the Bauhaus and worked in a wide range of fields including painting, sculpture, typography, advertising and architecture.

In his early years as a student he studied painting with Kandinsky, but in just a short while he was teaching one of the Bauhaus’ first classes on typography. The amount of work that he created before he was 28 was more notable than most designers entire careers of work. He spent time teaching at the Bauhaus, working as an Art Director for the Container Corporation and as an architect in both Germany and America.

In between his time at the Bauhaus and his career in America he spent time as the Art Director of Vogue magazine’s Berlin office. His contributions to the fields of graphic design, typography and advertising were many. One that should be noted was his design for a typeface that consisted of entirely lowercase letters.

The German blackletter types were overly ornate for his taste and their use of capital letter for every proper noun was annoying. Logically, Bayer developed a sans-serif alphabet of lowercase letters titled “Universal”.

Bayer designed the type used in the signage at the Bauhaus building in Dessau.

Herbert Bayer

In 1946 Bayer moved to Aspen, Colorado where he spent much of his time designing local architecture and posters for the local community. In 1959 he designed another sans-serif typeface. Again it was all in lower case, but he called it “fonetik alfabet� and it contained special characters for the endingsed, -ion, -ory and -ing. He is one of the most recognized designers to come from the Bauhaus institution and his theories of design are still taught in many schools today.

Kino Herbert Bayer,

62

63 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

“

MY WORK SEEN IN ITS TOTALITY IS A STATEMENT ABOUT THE INTEGRATION OF THE CONTEMPORARY ARTIST INTO AN INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY.”

——HERBERT BAYER

Herbert Bayer

Similar to many designs from the Bauhaus, Bayer designed a newspaper stand to be made out of pre-fabricated materials so that it could easily be reproduced.

64

65

“

THE SIMPLER THE ASSIGNMENT, THE MORE DIFFICULT THE SOLUTION.” ­—WOLFGANG WEINGART

66

WOLFGANG WEINGART

67 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

WOLFGANG WEINGART Wolfgang Weingart, who was born in 1941 in salemertal in southern germany, attended the merz akademie in stuttgart from 1958 to 1960, where he familiarised himself with typesetting and the process of making linocuts and

“ FOR ME, TYPOGRAPHY

IS A TRIANGULAR RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DESIGN IDEA,

woodcuts. after this he trained as a typesetter and

TYPOGRAPHIC ELEMENTS,

discovered swiss typography. since the 1970s wolfgang

AND PRINTING TECHNIQUE.”

weingart has exerted a decisive influence on the international development of typography. in the late 1960s he instilled creativity and a desire for experimentation into the ossified swiss typographical industry and reflected this renewal in his own work. countless designers have been inspired by his teaching at the basle school of design and by his lectures. weingart also held summer courses in brissago (yale summer program in graphic design) and from 1972 onwards gave lectures throughout the world, frequently in the usa where most of his students came from. weingart was a member of the agi from 1978 to 1999 has received several awards for his lifework: in 2005 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in fine arts by massachusetts college of art & design in boston, in 2013 the aiga medal.

—WOLFGANG WEINGART

Wolfgang Weingart

Poster for “Jewelry 1976, a special exhibition at Musterness Basel, 1975

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69 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

Wolfgang Weingart

left page: Kunstkredit Basel 1980/81, right page: The Swiss Poster 1900–1983

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DESIGN IS DIRECTED TOWARD HUMAN BEINGS. TO DESIGN IS TO SOLVE HUMAN PROBLEMS BY IDENTIFYING THEM AND EXECUTING THE BEST SOLUTION.” — IVAN CHERMAYEFF

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IVAN CHERMAYEFF

73 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

IVAN CHERMAYEFF Ivan Chermayeff was born in 1932 in London to Serge Ivan Chermayeff, a well-renowned Russian-born British architect and industrial designer. His family settled in United States in 1940. Chermayeff studied at the prestigious universities of Harvard, Yale and the Institute of Design in Chicago. It was in Yale where he met Tom Geismar, with whom (along with Sagi Haviv) he would later establish the leading New York-based branding and graphic design firm Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv – in 1957.

In his early career, Chermayeff worked for Alvin Lustig and CBS in New York, where he designed corporate identities, book covers and album covers for various clients. His work with Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv influenced generations of logo designers, and included innovative corporate identity designs for clients such as Pan Am, Mobil Oil, Chase Manhattan Bank, NBC, PBS, Showtime and various others. The firm is often considered as one of the most influential and productive design agencies in history. It has won numerous awards and accolades, including the AIGA gold medal, the Society of Illustrators gold medal, and the Yale Art Medal.

Poster for American Museum of Natural History, 1984

Ivan Chermayeff

Ivan produced outstanding images for hundreds of clients some of these being NBC and Mobil

IMES THERE “ SI SOSMI ME TPLY NO NEED

TO B E E I T HE R C L E V E R OR OR I G I N AL .”

——IVAN CHERMAYEFF

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75 Inspirational Quotes of Graphic Designers

“

Ivan Chermayeff

G O O D D ES I GN SH OU L D FO L LOW LO O K IN G INTO THE PRO DU CT S A N D RE PUTATIO N O F CL IE NT S W H O AP P ROAC H YOU , B UT THIS DO E S N OT ME A N YO U HAVE TO FO L LOW THE M INTO BE D.” ­——IVAN

CHERMAYEFF

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#DESIGNER CONFESSIONS

A TATTOO IN H I REALLY HATE F SIGN. I TOOK T FROM GOOGLE. NEVER KERN. I IDEA HOW TO U PEN TOOL. I DO A MAC. I USED SANS ONCE IN I ALWAYS NAM OUT LOUD WHE THEM (MY FRIEN 78

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“I ALMOST NEVER KERN.”

“I’M ACTUALLY COLOR BLIND.”

“I TOTALLY AUTO TRACED IT.”

“I ONCE GOT A TATTOO IN HELVETICA.”

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“I ALWAYS NAME FONTS OUT LOUD WHEN I SEE THEM.”

“I REALLY HATE FLAT DESIGN.”

“I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO USE THE PEN TOOL. “

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INDEX B Bayer, Herbert, 59—64 Bass, Saul, 07—12 Beall, Lester, 41—46

G Glaser, Milton, 13—18

C Carter, Matthew, 35—40 Carson, David, 31—34 Chermayeff, Ivan, 71—76

S Sagmeister, Stefan, 19—24

D Designer Confessions, 77—8

R Rand, Paul, 01—06

T Tschichold, Jan, 55—58 V Viganelli, Massimo, 47—54 W Weingart, Wolfgang, 65—70

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Meggs, Philip B. A History of Graphic Design. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1992. Print.

Blackwell, Lewis. Twentieth-century Type and beyond. London: Laurence King, 2013. Print.

Poulin, Richard. The Language of Graphic Design: An Illustrated Handbook for Understanding Fundamental Design Principles.

Beverly, Mass: Rockport, 2012. Print.

Carter, Rob, Ben Day, Philip B. Meggs, Sandra Maxa, and Mark Sanders. Typographic Design: Form and Communication. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2015. Print.

Los Angeles, and Pentagram Design. “AIGA Medalists.” AIGA | the Professional Association for Design. N.p., n.d. Web. An Introduction to the History of Graphic Design. N.p., n.d. Web. Milton Glaser. N.p., n.d. Web. Paul Rand, American Modernist (1914-1996). N.p., n.d. Web. David Carson Design. N.p., n.d. Web. “WE’VE ALL GOT ONE.” DesignerConfessions. N.p., n.d. Web.

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“ F ROM D ESI G NE RS TO DE S IGNE RS