A Legacy Film: Jane Davis Doggett: Graphic Artist WAYFINDER IN THE JET AGE

A Personal Portrait of an American Original in a 30-minute documentary

Legacy Films

Link to fi lm: https://vimeopro.com/jeffjonesfi lms/pwp/video/215478391 About the Film: Jane Davis Doggett: Graphic Artist WAYFINDER IN THE JET AGE

It is not likely that you would enter an airport today and not fi nd Jane Davis Doggett’s graphic design concepts of wayfi nding. The use of a common alphabet for signage, continuous title bands, overhead spanning directionals, three-dimensional sign canopies, and codifi cation of separate terminals or zones by letter—A, B, C—, color and symbol are hallmarks of her innovations.

As fate would have it, when she graduated from Yale in 1956, the “piston” turned into a “jet” which opened up the way for new, bold design concepts for the jetports. It also opened up for Jane Doggett a pioneer role in a new fi eld that was emerging in the 1950’s: environmental graphics design.

With new airports as her laboratory for experimenting in design theory, her wayfi nding system evolved, which proved to be not only effective in airports but also in mass transit facilities, universities, hospitals, sports arenas, museums and other cultural facilities, wherever the persuasive movement of the mass public was vital.

Witty and wise, she shares her remarkable career and amazing life in the 30-minute documentary Jane Davis Doggett: Graphic Artist, WAYFINDER IN THE JET AGE.

While a graduate student at Yale Art & Architecture, she was awed by the size and scope of the new environments as envisioned in architectural theory and instruction under the helm of Louis Kahn. To quote her:

“It occurred to me to think about the person confronted for the fi rst time with unfamiliar spaces in these architectural behemoths. Diminished in human scale, how would this person relate to such a new world; how would this person fi nd his way?” This was the spark that ignited her goal to humanize and defi ne the public’s way by innovating with a visual language using graphic tools: alphabet, colors, symbols. The Inspired teaching at Yale under Josef Albers in design and color and Alvin Eisenman in graphics gave her the foundation and Yale “Bulldog” determination to pursue her goal.

In conversational style, she invites the viewer to see the world through her unique vision. Whether describing her two-color graphic system at Tampa International Airport — still in use after 30 years — or her 23rd Psalm sculptures on permanent exhibit at Yale, or her encounter with Picasso on the Riviera during has ceramics period, she is both the consummate artist and storyteller

Link to fi lm: https://vimeopro.com/jeffjonesfi lms/pwp/video/215478391 Graphic Design and Art Work by Jane Davis Doggett

In the six panels that follow are selections of Jane Davis Doggett’s creative work over a long career as an artist and designer, and as a pioneer in environmental graphics design.

Her design innovations have left a legacy of wayfi nding concepts and graphics design systems that are pervasive in today’s new airports and other mass public environments.

“ Airports,” she says,” were my laboratories, where I experimented with every kind of symbol and signal, colors and geometrics, and the old reliable A, B, C’s and 1, 2, 3’s. I put these components to work in simplifi ed but commanding sign layouts that I conceived of as integrated parts in a system of the persuasive movement of people in a continuous progression by transport and by foot. My system began (for the fi rst time in engineered routings) at the airport roadway entrance, and was sustained in graphic continuity into and throughout the terminal environment. “

I took clippers and vacuum cleaner to the hodge-podge of ill-conceived signage in the old airports that were accelerated into rapid conversion to the coming of the jet. Out went those rental car signs in blinking neon with wires showing, jammed on nice old architectural surfaces. Out went signs with airlines titles hanging like tacky ‘for sale’ tags at a cheap shopping arcade. I gathered up the information, boiled it down to messages with essential directions, information and identities. I set them in clear layouts in the most readable alphabet forms I could design, and organized them in overhead architectural systems of message bands and spans — harking back to the friezes of Greek classical architecture.”

I recognized that airports could become overly uniformed with the repeat branding of the same airlines, rental cars, Dunkin’ Donuts, etc., that would deny the individual airport its place and identity in the world. In each project, I put emphasis on the airport as a unique place, whose special features, geographic and cultural, should be featured in the designed whole as an area Gateway.”

The fi rst three wayfi nding panels demonstrate major innovations that she brought to the dramatic change in the air transportation environment, beginning in the 1950’s. The other three panels display selected art works from recent two-and three- dimensional creations.

• Graphics Built Into Architecture • Coding by Color, Letter and Symbol • The Airport as a Gateway • 3D Art: Graphics in Dimension • 3D Art: American Icons • Waterscapes Graphics Built Into Architecture Concepts and Designs by Jane Davis Doggett

At Memphis, Jane Davis Doggett brought a new functional aesthetic adapted from German Standard, a forerunner of Helvetica. Unifying to airport design: signs built into architecture — as she describes it, all titles and directional messages in this highly legible font became “not hanging like price tags and labels in an arcade hodgepodge a hallmark of Doggett’s airport graphic design, and the use of a which was the airport scene at the time. When I graduated from Yale common sans serif alphabet evolved as a standard in airports as now Art and Architecture, it so happened that the piston turned into a jet, seen worldwide. and with it came the demand for new airport design to inteface with the new airplane technology. Memphis was my fi rst airport project, • George Bush Intercontinental- Airport and it was among the fi rst to debut the dramatic change in design of (fi rst three photos, second row) the air transportation environment into the jet age.” • Cleveland-Hopkins International Airport She initiated continuous message bands, signboards spanning (fourth photo, second row) Note sculptural housing of signs suspended corridors as beams, and information canopies installed in key from ceiling, which complements the curved forms of the airline decision points to provide passengers with three-dimensional viewing information counters. of messages intensifi ed by illumination of the canopies. The graphic components initiated at Memphis were adopted in subsequent • Newark Liberty International Airport airport design projects, as demonstrated here. (fi rst two photos, 3rd row)

• Memphis International Airport • Tampa International Airport (photos, top row) For the fi rst time, airlines allowed their titles to (third photo, bottom row) Note intensifi ed lighting at canopy to accentuate appear without their logos on a common band that Doggett decision paint. designed as “a ribbon of continuity” that wrapped around the entire central terminal. She set all airline titles in “Alphabet A,” a font that she Coding by Color, Letter and Symbol Concepts and Designs by Jane Davis Doggett

PIER PIER PIER PIER PIER A B C D E

Doggett’s graphic wayfi nding systems are structured on codifi cation. • George Bush Intercontinental-Houston Airport She was the fi rst to codify airport terminals by color and letter — Red (all photos, second vertical row) The Houston Airport was Doggett’s vs. Blue, Terminal A, Terminal B, etc. She added color in geometrics fi rst design challenge based on a multi-termiminal complex. This is to enhance terminal separations. Recognizing that space and time where she fi rst introduced the A,B, C terminal codifi cations. Note the limitations make it diffi cult for people to read lists of airline titles which effective readouts that the large letters in separate colors project over are greatly reduced in size due to roadway space limitation, she used a long vehicular approach distances large color/letter or color/symbol to codify the airlines in each terminal or zone. Once codifi ed, the large letter or symbol can then stand alone, • Baltimore-Washington International Airport easily readable from a great distance. Whereas, the small airline titles (top photos, third vertical row) The big “B” reads at a very far distance are not discernable. in the Terminal. Doggett’s coding utilizes the nautical letter/signal fl ag system —A (Alfa), B (Bravo), C (Charlie), etc. Each “Pier” (concourse) is The coded system has contributed to the safe and orderly fl ow of designated by a separate letter with its nautical symbol displayed to vehicular traffi c since drivers are not slowed down to a crawl to try to enhance codifi cation. read the messages, impeding the fl ow of traffi c behind them. Also, it has been proven that sign coding greatly reduces the number of • Philadelphia Mass Transit System signs, resulting in cost savings in signage production and maintenance. (photos, bottom, third vertical row) To create visual separation for the interconnecting mass transit lines, she used geometric patterns and • Tampa International Airport separate colors — curving loops for the subway lines, squares for the (all photos, fi rst vertical row) Airport roadway entry signs demonstrate buses and other surface vehicles, chevrons for the commuter rails. the effectiveness of color-coding with large symbols in distance viewing. Note how the red symbols project from the curbside canopies where smaller airline titles are not as easily legible. The Airport as a Gateway Concepts and Designs by Jane Davis Doggett

Welcome to Boston - Logan International Airport

Doggett’s innovative concept included thematic graphics to project used in signage to designate “concourses,” and each pier is the individual airport as a gateway to a particular place, refl ecting identifi ed by a letter with its corresponding nautical fl ag symbol. natural, historic and cultural features of the area. • Miami International Customs Arrival Area • Miami International Airport (third photo, second row) She designed a “welcoming wall” for the (photos, top row) Her logo is based on the sea nautilus to express the International Arrivals, which displays an abstract medley of fl ags from ocean environment, in colors —bright orange and plum—from South the various countries that fl y into Miami Airport. Florida sunrises and that are favored by Latin Americans who make • Boston-Logan International Airport up a large portion of the area population. The arch sign support and (fi rst photos, bottom row) Doggett’s gateway logo shown in the sculpted landmark refl ect the Latin American architectural heritage entrance sign and in a placemark mural is designed in an Escher-like which characterizes the area. In a Latin fi esta “beat,” the mural rolls out interplay of a seagull and a codfi sh that identifi es Boston in its from the nautilus symbol in free-fl owing ribbons in the identity colors, seafaring heritage. suggesting the fl amboyant curving motifs in the sidewalks of Rio. • Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport • Baltimore-Washington International Airport (second, third and forth photos, bottom row) Her concept for the (fi rst two photos, second row) To refl ect Baltimore as a major shipping thematic logo projects the Airport as a gateway to a major Florida pier city and to feature the airport as a third airport gateway into the destination famous for its beaches, sea birds, surfi ng and sunning. The Nation’s Capitol, Doggett brought in the “fl ag-fl ying theme.” Above “wind tower” was designed not only as a thematic placemark, but the continuous airline title band, she designed a dimensional mural importantly as a working generator of electricity. The logo on top can composed of individual airline logos that, as you walk alongside, be seen from the air. appear as fl ags moving in a kaleidoscopic continuum, achieved by using mirror returns abutting repeating logo tetrahedrons. “Piers” are 3D Art: Graphics In Dimension by Jane Davis Doggett

From inspired instruction at Newcomb and Yale and the wayfi nding word message on mirror panel abutting at 90 degrees. Each row is discipline in design for airports emerged the IconoChrome™, her coined repeated, with rows arranged in opposite order so that viewers can read name for images she creates in geometric and color abstractions to the IconoChromes™ approaching from either direction in the gallery. express philosophically profound messages — proverbs, quotations and There is a Season was fi rst exhibited at the Elliott Museum, Stuart, FL in 2013, traditional sayings from various cultures. She assembled these in Talking and later at the University of Maine, Orono in 2014. Graphics, a book deemed for lovers of both art and literature. • Homage to Galileo: Circle, Square, Triangle in Three Dimensions “The IconoChrome™, ”she says,” is not illustration: the medium is the (bottom row) Shown in their permanent display at the Elliott Museum, message — graphics expressing the meaning of the words as I feel it.” Stuart, Florida, suspended from ceiling, and as shown wall-mounted as As she learned in programing airport signage within space and time fi rst exhibited at the State Museum, Nashville in 2009, and limitations, she renders the images with an economy of means — “the later, at the Armory in West Palm Beach, FL in 2011, co-sponsored by the strongest stroke in the shortest time to reach the viewer.” Armory and Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, FL. She has inventively dimensionalized IconoChromes™ into individual In Galileo’s own words, Doggett sees this philosophy at the crux of what objects or conjoined modules for exhibition display in sequenced has moved her to explore the world in wayfi nding and IconoChrome ™ progression along a wall, fl oor or suspended from a ceiling. Examples images in the language that Galileo sets forth, and that Yale teachers are shown here. Albers, Eisenman and Kahn spoke. • 23rd Psalm Philosophy is often written in this grand book — I mean the universe — (top row) Twelve boxes, wall-mounted in single-fi le progression. First which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood exhibited in the Vincent Scully Gallery at Yale, the full set was acquired unless one fi rst learns to comprehend the language and interpret the in 2012 in the permanent Art Collection and it now characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics. resides, as shown here, in the St. Thomas More Center at Yale. And its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical fi gures, • There is a Season, Ecclesiastes, Chapter III, Verses 1-8 without which it is humanly impossible to understand a singe word of it; (second row) Two stacked rows of wall-mounted tetrahedrons, with without these, one is wandering about in a dark labyrinth. each verse displayed in an angled graphic image panel with the Galileo, 1564 - 1642 3D Art: American Icons by Jane Davis Doggett

All artists have kept their own personal “icons” in their archives of • Portraits from a Pub places and times that are in lasting memories, and they have often (top row, last two photos) Etched on plexiglass tiles, Doggett’s original expressed these in their art. On top row are two sculptures that pencil sketches are from her sketchbook in 1955, when she was in Yale Art Doggett created from her archives. & Architecture graduate school. Sketches were done on-scene at an Irish pub on New York’s Third Avenue, a favorite spot of Yale students, where a The American fl ag sculptures shown are part of her series of graphic motley group of local characters gathered to drink and sing and smoke. 2D-into-3D creations, arranging the American fl ag in various It was often the last scene for Yalies before boarding the late New Haven confi gurations and progressions. One is reminded of the art works of Railroad commuter train. Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein and other artists who were drawn to exploring images of the American icon. • America on the Move and Wings of the Eagle (American fl ags) America on the Move (left photos) is 24” wide. It is in a private collection. • Destinies / Destinations Wings of the Eagle (right photos) is a six-foot square construction. Both (top row, fi rst two photos) Each object represents a venue in which sculptures are displayed on the fl oor, raised on a recessed plinth so that Doggett has lived and which has a special meaning for her, with they “fl oat.” Each allows for viewing from all angles as the viewer walks shapes and colors expressing her associations with the places. They around it. Wings of the Eagle was fi rst exhibited at the Lighthouse Center are arranged in chronological order: Nashville - triangle; for the Arts, Tequesta, FL in 2016, and is now at the Elliott Museum, Stuart FL – oval; Italy - Releaux triangle; Yale – square; New York - vertical rectangle; New Canaan, CT – pentagon; Maine – half circle (down); Florida – half circle (up). The sculpture was exhibited at the Elliott Museum, May 2015, and is in the artist’s private collection. Waterscapes by Jane Davis Doggett © ©

th i ht ith hi t i f th i th d k

In an innovative medium, Doggett’s original hand drawings are scanned in segmented layers into Adobe Vector on an Apple computer, a design process she has termed electronic silk screening. Because the software is Vector, as opposed to pixel, images can be enlarged into virtually any size and still remain “in focus.” The digital fi les can be converted to laser printing at various sizes on various materials, e.g., paper, canvas, silk, vinyl, Lexan, glass, plexiglass, aluminum, stainless steel, etc. She has a series which she calls Waterscapes, some of which are shown here in 8-ft. murals:

(top row) Heirs Advancing Like Waves and Counter Currents

(second row) Moonlight over Lake Okeechobee and Boundless Sea

(third row) Winging South over Jupiter island and Loxahatchee, River of Turtles

(bottom row) Eagle over the Porcupines, Bar Harbor and Knockabouts off Dixon Point About the Artist Jane Davis Doggett

Jane Davis Doggett is one of the pioneering women artists to have trained at the Yale School of Art and Architecture during its modernist heyday. As an early student of Josef Albers, she took his famed Interaction of Color course and absorbed Albers’ inspired principles of color perception while establishing her own strong artistic identity. Jane also studied with Louis Kahn and Alvin Eisenman, whose brilliant teachings in the fi elds of architecture and graphic design further led her on from Yale to become one of America’s leading graphic designers. Her colorful and comprehensive thematic graphic identity and wayfi nding systems now enliven many public complexes, including 40 international airport projects —.more than any other designer in the world.

Jock Reynolds The Henry J. Heinz II Director, Yale university Art Gallery

Jane Davis Doggett and Blosom Boundless sea is shown on the wall. She initiated the use of color-coding and letters — A, B, C, etc. — to identify and index airport terminals which she rendered in large iconic graphics in approach roadway signage and extended throughout the terminals interior graphics. She also initiated the concept of thematic graphics to project the airport as a gateway, symbolizing unique geographic and cultural aspects of the area that each airport serves. Examples include: Tampa, Baltimore-Washington, Miami, Newark, Cleveland-Hopkins, Boston-Logan, and George Bush-Houston. 20 million airport passengers a year are guided by her wayfi nding signage and graphics. Her designs have earned distinguished honors: American Institute of Architects’ National Award of Merit, Progressive Architecture Design Award, American Iron and Steel Institute’s Design in Steel Citation, and two Design Awards co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2007, she received the Outstanding Alumna Award from Newcomb College. In 2008, she was elected a Sterling Fellow of Yale. In 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award by the Arts Council of Martin County, Florida. In 2015, she was honored with the Arts Recognition Award by the Arts Council of the Town of Jupiter Island, Florida of which she is a resident. In 2016, she was inducted into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame.

Yale acquired in their permanent art collection her 23rd Psalm sculpture — 12 boxes wrapped in her color geometric images expressing the passages of the Psalm. In 2012, the sculpture was installed in the Saint Thomas More Center at Yale, an impressive modern building by Architect César Pelli. In 2014, the Elliott Museum acquired in their permanent collection her Homage to Galileo sculpture. Beginning with Talking Graphics, her fi rst published book, in 2007, she created IconoChrome™ images: geometric designs in colors expressing philosophically profound messages — proverbs, quotations and sayings from various cultures. It is a book for lovers of both art and literature. In an innovative design approach, Doggett’s original hand drawings are scanned in segments into Adobe Vector templates on an Apple computer, a design process she has termed electronic silk screening. Because the softwareis vector — as apposed to pixel — images can be enlarged into prints at virtually any size and still remain in “focus.”Produced by the same computer process are landscape renderings that express natural environments in her experiences living by the water — which she calls Waterscapes©.

Vector images have been enlarged into panels, murals and three-dimensional objects, which have been displayed in featured exhibitions including: Yale University Art Gallery; Tennessee State Museum, Nashville; Armory Art Center, West Palm Beach, FL; Tampa International Airport; Lighthouse Art Center, Tequesta, FL; Northern Trust, North Palm Beach, FL; Maritime and Classic Boat Museum, Jensen Beach, FL; College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, ME; Littlefi eld Gallery, Winter Harbor, ME; Elliott Museum, Stuart, FL.; University of Maine, Orono, ME.; Maine Sea Coast Mission, Bar Harbor, ME; Schoodic Center for Education, Winter Harbor, ME.. In 2017, a 30-minute fi lm portrait, Jane Davis Doggett: Graphic Artist, WAYFINDING IN THE JET AGE, was produced by Pat Williams Productions as a Legacy Film. A link to the fi lm: https://vimeopro.com/jeffjonesfi lms/pwp/video/215478391 Jane Doggett’s e-mail: [email protected] website: www.jddinc.com