Deborah Sussman was a pioneer in environmental design from the west coast. She is credited for her way-finding and supergraphics which were revolutionary in that they appear to be larger than the space they occupy. She and her husband opened Sussman-Prejza Design in 1980 and worked there until her death in 2014 due to breast cancer.
mind behind the l.a. ’84 olympics Her most famous work was the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics which were the first privately organized games. The designs originated from a red white and blue star logo. However, Sussman and her colleagues patriotism was the wrong choice for these independent games. As such, her design reflects The summer games the city rather than the country and relied on gateways, incorporated influences from the Pacific columns and large rim to reflect the cultural makeup of Los graphic elements Angeles. Mexico, Indonesia, and India helped inspire the color palette and the bamboo-like structures that created the bulk of the infrastructure where borrowed from Japan and China. The tight budget of these games also led to great opportunity for incorporating Sussman’s supergraphics. The LA Olympics were called a PopUp Olympics because of the temporary nature of all the infrastructure. Almost entirely outdoors, the Summer Games relied on gateways, columns and
large graphic elements that Sussman describes as Festive Federalism which consisted of stars and stripes in the Summer Games palette. The pallet was the most controversial aspect of her. Male modernists in the project were shocked by her color choices and, as Sussman recalls, thought she needed to include gray. Nonetheless Sussman persisted and the resulting games were so successful that the city has since become synonymous with those bright colors. Left. Entry Gates and Columns were made of cheap materials and relied on drapery for form. Above. Numerous Columns formed the base of many of the structures and in some cases acted as way finding
Supergraphics helped to permeate the games into the city. They did this while maintaining a small footprint consisting mainly of temporary structures.
charles and ray eames’ protege Deborah Sussman first met Charles and Ray Eames during when they visited the Chicago Institute of Design during Sussman’s attendance. According to Sussman, the Eames’s were able to find beauty and evidence of design in overlooked things like crackers and bread. Sussman considered herself extremely lucky when she was chosen as an intern to work with Charles and Ray Eames. “Charles had a way of sensing what your Achilles Heel was,” Sussman said in an interview, “and then he would force you to do that thing.” The Eames’s contagious sense of play and their interdisciplinary approach meant a varied portfolio for Sussman. One of her first tasks was illustrating the instruction manual for the House of Cards Game. It had to be done in perspective and it had to be done with a ruling pen much to Sussman’s disadvantage. It was clear that as much as their work relied on play they also demanded excellence.
y Sussman’s invitation to the Six More exhibition, for example, was functionally unique and visually fresh because it utilized modern letter forms and useful negative space. The large six on the front was also a page cut to shape.
Above. Fourth of July independent shades were incorporated into this folded invitation to a Malibu beach celebration. Left. Charles and Ray Eames and Sussman worked together for more than a decade during which time she won a Fulbright scholarship
Right. Sussman illustrated this ad in collaboration with the Eames who were known for their Multidisciplinary approach.
Duke Energy Convention center takes advantage of the city skyline by only being legible from a distance. Up close the letter-forms abstract into the panels that compose them.
Grand Park Totem, which features twenty six languages is a welcoming symbol for this public space. The Joseph Magnin store is a perfect
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sussman’s supergraphics After the Olympics, supergraphics became Deborah Sussman’s calling card and she was thus called on to work on environmental design projects in her adopted city as well as other cities in the east who were catching on to her work. She merged the indoor and outdoor spaces with her design for Joseph Magnin department store. The store features large colored letters in her iconic style that wrap the building and continue in through the front doors to wrap the interior.
In Los Angeles Sussman created the now iconic Grand Park signage. It features bright signs that indicate the species in the park. The park also includes a totem that has cut out of it “A Park For All” in two dozen languages. The Grand Park signage was completed in 2014 and would be Sussman’s Last project.
L.A. Grand Park ld be Sussman’s last project
In Cincinnati, Sussman created an landmark for the city at Duke Energy Convention center. The main attraction is the three hundred foot long sign reading Cincinnati that is legible from a distance in suspended panels but that abstract themselves as one approaches.
Left. Grand Park Totem, which features twenty six languages is a welcoming symbol for this public space. Above. The Joseph Magnin store is a perfect example of the power of supergraphics to influence space
Giovannini, Joseph. Turning Surface into Symbol. Architectural Record 194 (1): 2006, 75–80. Gomez-Palacio, Bryony; Vit, Armin. Women of Design. Cincinnati: HOW Books, 2008. Hawthorne, Christopher. She Loves L.A. Metropolis: Architecture Design 33: 2014, 86–102. Sussman, Deborah. L.A. Wo Man. Creative Review 34 (1): 2014, 48–53.
Designed and written by Tyler Moulton. GD102 Design Basics: Typography and Image, BFA Spring 2019, Margo Halverson. Composed in VAG Rundschrift D and Blenny Copyright © 2019 Tyler Moulton; Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art.