The following articles were authored over the past two decades. Although some of the details have become irrelevant, the thrust of the articles continues to be germane.

. “BACK IN THE U.S.S.R.: (OR THAT Tired: what we have been doing for the past Unfortunately, publishing editors find type on I’ve never liked labels. Constructivism has cer- UKRAINE TYPE REALLY KNOCKS ME OUT)” five years an angle very difficult to read. This means that tainly had an enormous impact on the way I de- Originally published in the AIGA Journal of Too weird: what we will be doing in five years a good Constructivist design is usually killed in sign, but so has nearly every other movement Graphic Design, Volume 4, Number 1, 1984 Too ugly: what we will be doing in ten years favor of something “less complicated.” Another in art history at different times. It’s funny the way something suddenly looks editorial complaint is that it doesn’t look “seri- It’s 1983. I still think El Lissitzky is great, ous” enough. I confess that I don’t understand though sometimes I think he’s merely nice. I good. I was recently shocked to find that a cou- It is no coincidence that around the time that this complaint. They were dead serious in 1917. think I only have one year left in the U.S.S.R. ple of terrific El Lissitzky and Rodchenko posters I said “That’s great!” to El Lissitzky, two Rodch- In four years and after umpteen attempts, grace the pages of moldy art history books from enko books were published, followed by a big I’ve had only three constructivist designs reach “BACK TO SHOW AND TELL” my college days. In fact, there are Russian con- new Lissitzky book and The Art of the October the printing press. Two were posters for a CBS Originally published in the AIGA Journal of structivist posters in all the poster collection Revolution and Paris-Moscow and The Art of Records promotion of The Best of Jazz. The Graphic Design, Volume 4, Number 1, 1986 books that I accumulated over thirteen years; the Russian Avant-Garde, plus the George problem was to get twenty big names on a A year ago I relived an experience I had in my but for some reason, I never really studied them Costinokos exhibition at the Guggenheim with poster, not spend any money, and have it look ninth grade Algebra II class. The occasion was until 1979. the accompanying book, the Malevich book, etc. good enough to motivate record-store owners a seminar on graphic-design education at the I flipped by them when I was looking for It was also no coincidence that many of my de- to hang it up. Maryland Institute of Art in which some practic- Victorian inspiration. I ignored them when I was signer friends had gone Russian crazy at the The wonderful thing about being a de- ing designers and design educators shared a ripping off art nouveau and art deco designs. same time. When 500 unrelated people say signer in the music business is that nothing has common stage. The premise was sound: to gen- I discovered El Lissitzky when I was heavily “That’s great!” at the same time and incorpo- to mean anything. That doesn’t mean that it’s erate debate between these factions. However, into my Cassandre phase. I remember flipping rate the influence into their work, it constitutes easy being a music business designer. On the what resulted was disappointing. Instead of through The Poster in History and finding the a movement. contrary. When I did the Best of Jazz posters in meaningful discussion and clear explanation, black-and-white poster of a boy and girl whose In analyzing our response to Russian con- early 1980, the CBS Records marketing depart- the design educators gave pompous presenta- heads were merging together. There was a giant structivism, I’m convinced that we’re respond- ment didn’t understand that I was being influ- tions on the structures and curricula of their red “U.S.S.R.” running across their foreheads. ing to our political and economic climate in both enced by El Lissitzky. They were mostly con- schools supported by pedantic visuals and “That’s great!” I said. emotional and practical terms. The work of the cerned that the names be big and legible and charts. They spoke in jargon I’ve never used pro- At the moment I said “That’s great!” I was Russian constructivists represented the opti- that the posters be cheap. The marketing de- fessionally and didn’t understand. The lectures back in the U.S.S.R. I knew I would look for more mism of the Revolution and the Marxist utopian partment thought the posters were a little weird were so abstruse that I hadn’t a clue as to what El Lissitzky posters and that I would incorporate dream. But the late 1970s and the 1980s have stylistically, but that was OK because it made was going on in their schools. I wondered if the the style into my own work. been politically depressing times, a period of them new wave. students did either. I didn’t say “That’s great!” when I saw the negativity, conservatism, and a general lowering After the Best of Jazz posters came out, I The Algebra II syndrome (a compulsion to poster in 1974. In 1974, I looked at the giant of our personal and economic expectations. began getting calls from the graphics commu- hum 1960s rock and roll and make spitballs) is U.S.S.R. foreheads and said, “Too weird.” If we Constructivist work could make us feel we were nity asking me to submit work to various new- my reaction whenever theoretics (theoretics as want to predict future graphic trends, all we have creating a visual rebellion in inspired times. We wave shows. I would respond that I was not a an end in itself) are applied to design. At to do is pick up poster books and tape-record could make a graphic statement that was visu- new-wave designer, and then I would be asked Maryland, my feelings were compounded. The our responses to various genres and periods. ally strong although there was no justification specifically for the Best of Jazz poster. first was one of shame. That’s what happens Here’s what the responses mean: for it. Another triumph of style over substance. How can something blatantly ripped off from when I’m bombarded with incomprehensible The practical aspect of constructivism is that 1917 be considered new wave? language. Boredom follows shame: I tune out That’s great: what we are doing now or will be it is cheap to do. A vigorous and “important- Gene Greif, a designer who often displays and squirm in my seat. Then I realize I’m really doing tomorrow, even though every client will looking” graphic design can be had for the cost constructivist influences in his work, told me angry. Boredom is anger. I’m angry in this case reject it. of typesetting and a few photostats. recently that when he showed his portfolio two because the speaker is supposed to be talking Nice: what we have been doing for the past The drawback to the constructivist design and three years ago, everyone said it was “too about graphic design, not quantum physics. three years, and what we will resort to when approach is that it is very difficult to sell. Firstly, new wave.” “Now,” he tells me, “everyone says Semiotics was one of the favorite words “That’s great!” is rejected the most logical use for it would be on jackets for it’s too postmodern.” bandied about the Maryland session. In fact, Russian political books of that period. some of the educators took great pride in the classes to see whether they feel comfortable sign speak to give credence to the profession one box, one triangle, one circle in salmon, fact that their schools were breaking new with the approach being taught. because they’re embarrassed that it was once gray-green, or turquoise; cream, white, or light ground in this area. If so, why couldn’t any of When I first saw the work by the students called “commercial art.” Is it necessary to indoc- gray background them make the idea understandable? At the trinate students with jargon just to compensate entering my class, I thought that they were High-tech/Postmodern: same as postmodern risk of losing anyone who has read this far, the for a sense of professional inferiority? unprepared to enter the job market unless except change background to matte black and following is the Webster’s dictionary definition radical improvement occurred over the year. No change geometric shapes to primary colors of semiotics: “a general philosophical theory of amount of theoretical instruction would help. “THE RIGHT FACE” signs and symbols that deals especially with Therefore I created a series of complex assign- Originally published in the AIGA Journal of New Wave Generic: sans serif type in different their function in artificially constructed natural ments that were extensively critiqued. The chal- Graphic Design, Volume 5, Number 1, 1987 weights and heights, with italics intermittently language and comprises syntactics, semantics, lenge was to pinpoint what was wrong and show Let’s face it: We’re living in an era of style over dispersed; minimum of two ripped pieces of and pragmatics.” how it could be made better. My method was to substance. Every day we are going to be asked paper, one triangle (right triangle, not isosceles; How does it really apply to graphic design? use simple language and strong visual examples to give something “a look.” long, skinny, right triangle preferred; use hot I thought it would be fun to call seven of my fa- to illustrate my points. In effect, I became the I’ve been asked to give things all different pink, lime green, and black; never use beige vorite “award winning” designers and ask them client. But I also became a graphic fascist, disal- kinds of looks, but very often I’ve had difficulty New Wave Yale: same as new wave generic to define semiotics. Four said they didn’t know lowing typefaces, reordering elements, dictating figuring out what kind of look the client is de- except change ripped paper to vertical parallel (one of them didn’t want to know); two said that style and content. The students were forced to scribing. The problem is language. In initial meet- lines (preferably at an angle) and use different it may have something to do with symbols; and design and redesign, yet in the process of follow- ings, the client would talk about “concept devel- weights of Univers one said she knew but didn’t want to answer. If ing these directives, they made their own discov- opment.” I naively went off and came up with one asks the same designers how a symbol eries, which had surprising results. concepts, until I found out that “concept devel- New Wave West Coast: same as new wave works, they’ll give articulate answers and use The approach I instinctively used was the opment” meant “the look.” Another mistake I Yale except add photographic images in boxes good examples to illustrate their points. old apprentice method. Do what I do, and watch made was the use of the word style. I would talk or silhouettes; suggested imagery: one to It’s not just the exclusionary language that it come out your way. This method requires total about employing a style, as in “the style of tin- three eyes, one television set, one telephone bothers me, but also the process of making commitment. The teacher must “give it all away” metal signs,” or discuss a specific period style, New Wave/Postmodern: same as postmodern more complex the difficult act of explaining (style, conceits, tricks), or the premise won’t such as Jugendstil or constructivism. I found except change gray-green to bright lime, graphic-design principles to would-be design- work. It’s sometimes threatening. It can be in- that my clients didn’t know what I was talking change salmon to hot pink, add ripped paper, ers. Obviously, my reaction is based on a per- timidating to watch as a student easily accom- about. Firstly, they preferred the word look to the and enlarge triangle. sonal teaching style that might be termed “ex- plishes something it took me fifteen years to word style. Secondly, they had to see a picture of New Wave/Postmodern/High-Tech: same as tended apprenticeship.” Call it what you will—a master. But in the end and in a relatively short the style so they could grasp it within their own new wave/postmodern except make back- style, method, or philosophy—it is a hands-on amount of time, some potentially good profes- vernacular (“Art deco looks sort of like that post- ground matte, take out ripped paper, add process that has produced tangible results. sionals emerged. modern stuff and is a little bit high-tech and graph-paper grid In 1982, I was asked to teach graphic de- At the Maryland Institute seminar, one edu- would be good for yuppie audiences”). sign to seniors at the School of Visual Arts, in cator presented a chart that showed the spiral- After seven years of trial and error, I have de- Classic: serif type (Bodonis, Caslons, New York. The media department has a ing growth of students as they absorbed the ciphered a style code. What follows is a guide to Garamonds), lots of white space, white or loosely prescribed curriculum, with an empha- design theories of successive courses culminat- “the look” and how you make it, plus a list of com- cream background sis on doing. There are few, if any, theoretical ing in graduation—meaning the students were mon complaints and how to improve upon them. Funky: same as new wave generic but all ele- courses. The school hires working designers qualified to enter the profession. What hogwash! ments are bigger who represent a broad range of experiences There was no mention of talent. All the theory in High-tech: matte-black background, white or and approaches. Hence the instructors are the world cannot replace talent. Talented stu- primary-colored sans serif type, slightly letter- Gritty: any of the above styles without any de- completely responsible for course content and dents can overcome any form of education spaced, small geometric shapes incorporated sign sensibility such as color, form, or scale are encouraged to teach what they know best. unless they’ve been bored out of the profession. with graph-paper motif New York or Downtown New Wave: same as The students have a certain choice in what I abhor the charade of the Maryland session. Postmodern: sans serif or serif type (small); gritty but use new wave generic elements they take. After the foundation year, they audit These academicians, I believe, have created de- Understated: same as classic only use eight- no substance” is often coupled with “flash in the If only we could scamper to the top with the anteed mediocrity. I clearly remember beautiful point Garamond pan” as a way of describing hot young designers ease with which we loped to the middle. Instead cover illustrations biting the dust at CBS Re- who get more than one piece in a design show. we take baby steps and mutter, “Too much style cords, only to be replaced—always due to the in- L.A.: same as new wave West Coast but What a wonderful way to demean youth! and no substance,” because we learned that fluence of the marketing department—with trite use turquoise and flamingo pink as predomi- “Too much style” helps us conceal that nagging line from higher-ups when we were hot young photos of overweight musicians who were un- nant colors inkling we have that our own work may be out flashes at the bottom. comfortable in front of the camera. So I began Complaints and Remedies of style, and “no substance” convinces us that Very often, when we look at the work of our my research. Too new wave: remove one piece of our potentially dated work is somehow more great graphic-designer institutions, we find that The very first call I made was to the newly ripped paper. meaningful, rendering style irrelevant. Some- so much of their truly important, innovative appointed East Coast art director Chris Aust- times it is even true. work was produced over a relatively short pe- opchuk, who had worked as a designer at CBS Too funky: make everything smaller. But what all this muttering denies is the riod of time: five years, ten years, flashes in the Records when I held his job. I enthusiastically Too understated: make everything bigger. great excitement in finding and creating style, pan. Then there seems to be a leveling. Maybe recited the premise of my proposed speech while that thrill in putting the pieces together in a these institutions never made it to the top of he listened in silence. Then he icily replied that Too L.A.: remove turquoise. way that looks new and fresh, if not to the de- the staircase but were merely inching along while that may be my view of CBS Records, it Too classic: add one circle and one square. sign community at large then at least to our- some other plateau in the dark. Maybe there is certainly wasn’t his and that my talk made it no top, just shorter risers and longer plateaus Too clever: remove inadvertent idea. selves. These are the kind of discoveries we sound like design at CBS Records had gone generally make early in our careers, when each that go on forever. downhill, while in his view it was better than ever. Too cute: remove inadvertent idea. design is a new experience for us, when prob- Plateaus are actually very comfortable, be- I couldn’t initially understand why Chris Too smart: remove deliberate idea. lem solving seems more experimental and some cause it takes less energy to move. The problem would defend the marketing department. But of our solutions may be true breakthroughs. This is the dark. Perhaps the solution is to step aside of course he wasn’t. He was defending himself. is when we are building and expanding the and allow a flash to trot by. With a little light from I was then persona non grata with the CBS “THE DARK IN THE MIDDLE OF graphic vocabulary that will probably serve us that torch, we may find the next step. Records art department, and since I couldn’t THE STAIRS” for the rest of our careers, when we are estab- expose the evils of marketing with the present, Originally published in Graphis, Issue 264, lishing our rules and parameters, and breaking “RASHOMON IN THE I’d have to rely on the past. Over the course of November/December 1989 them, and reestablishing them. this year, I have conducted a series of conver- One morning, my snotty twenty-two-year-old RECORD BUSINESS” I’ve always felt that a design career is like a sations and interviews with the past heads of assistant danced into the studio and informed Originally published in the AIGA Journal of long, surreal staircase. At the bottom, the risers the CBS Records art department and some of me that he had gone to the opening of some Graphic Design, Volume 7, Number 4, 1990; are steep, and the landings are short. One makes the designers who served under them. graphic design competition and that I only had from a speech at the 1989 AIGA Dangerous long leaps of discovery at the bottom in a rela- A peculiar thing began to happen. None of one piece in the show. Ideas design conference in San Antonio, Texas. tively short period of time—a step a year, or two, the stories really connected. There seemed to “Was it a good show?” I asked. “Yeah, it Last winter, Milton Glaser called me to ask if I and sometimes even one great leap to the mid- be no thread. It was as if each reigning art direc- was OK,” he said. “There was a lot of work from would prepare a talk for a conference about dle of the stairs. Then, suddenly, the risers be- tor had existed in a space and time that was to- a guy in Iowa who sort of looks like Duffy the history of the cover department of CBS come shallow and the landings lengthen. We tally his own. Rules changed; corporate person- Design.” I harrumphed and muttered, “Too much Records. He was specifically interested in the trudge along the same endless plateau, and the ality changed. It was Rashomon. style and no substance.” rise of power in the marketing department and scenery doesn’t change. The light becomes dim For those of you who have never seen it, I’ve been muttering “too much style and no how it affected the design of record covers. He around us, but there are sudden flashes back in Rashomon is a film by the Japanese director substance” frequently for the past several years. suggested that I trace record-cover design back the distance from the bottom of the steps. We Akira Kurosawa, produced in 1951. The film is I love muttering it, and I hear all kinds of people I to its birth fifty years ago and create a case don’t dare turn around to look because we might set in eighth-century Japan and centers around respect and admire mutter it. Our great designer study of a corporation, illustrating the increased lose our footing. Worse yet, the flashes seem an alleged rape and murder as told by wit- “institutions” mutter it a lot. I’ve noticed that it’s influence of marketing over the years. ominous, hostile, like a potential fire that could nesses. Each witness gives his or her version of usually muttered in relation to designers who are Now, I hate marketing. Somehow it whee- burn up the whole staircase. the same story, but the stories are totally differ- dles its way into everything I do, enforcing guar- younger than the mutterer. “Too much style and ent, each affected by the person’s point of view. Alex Steinweiss: 1939–53 He’d mail the comps up to CBS in Bridgeport, Records marketing department. He seemed puz- lated to that identifying image. Several months where his former assistants would do the fin- zled, then he said, “Oh, you mean sales!” later, he moved to New York and began to sort Alex Steinweiss graduated in 1934 from ished art for reproduction. After the war, he set “That’s it.” out all the record labels under CBS. Fujita de- Abraham Lincoln High School, where he had up a freelance design office in his apartment “Those sales guys came in, like Goddard veloped a new look for CBS packaging by call- been trained by Leon Friend. Steinweiss was and was retained by Ted Wallerstein, president Lieberson. Real Seventh Avenue types!” ing in new and young photographers, design- granted a scholarship to Parsons School of of CBS Records, as a design consultant. This is a picture of Goddard Lieberson. As ers, and illustrators, who offered a broad vari- Design and in 1937 began his career as an as- In 1948, he witnessed the birth of the vice president and then president of CBS ety of solutions. sistant to Joseph Binder. Shortly thereafter, he Columbia LP record and designed the record Records, he would have a powerful effect on the Neil Fujita says that he served as art direc- started freelancing. In 1939 he got a telephone jacket, which is still in use today for this prod- direction of the company and its graphics until tor from 1954 to 1957, then left for a year to es- call from Doc Leslie saying that CBS had just uct. He patented it, released the patent to CBS, his death in 1977. tablish his own business. Roy Kuhlman re- bought a record company and that they were and found the manufacturer, Imperial Paper placed him but was fired after one year. Then setting up an advertising department and would Box Corporation, which was willing to invest Neil Fujita: 1954–57; 1958–60 Fujita returned to CBS and remained until 1960. need an art director. An appointment was set up about $250,000 in new equipment to produce He told me that he had been asked by Goddard with the new advertising manager, Patrick it. Not long after, in 1953, Wallerstein had a se- Neil Fujita was working for N. W. Ayer in Lieberson to return until Lieberson could find a Dolan. Steinweiss was hired. It was a thrilling rious disagreement with William Paley, the Philadelphia when he was hired to become the suitable replacement. Roy Kuhlman says he development in his life because he would be chairman of CBS. His contract was bought up, first in-house art director of CBS Records. He was hired at CBS in 1954 and fired in 1955. Alex doing creative work, and the work would be and he was out. was recommended to Goddard Lieberson, who Steinweiss says that Fujita was hired in 1953. connected with music, which he loved. Steinweiss learned that Goddard Lieberson, was executive vice president at the time, by Bill Bob Cato says that he was hired in 1959 and Steinweiss was responsible for creating a who had come into the company the same year Golden, CBS’s famous corporate art director. that Fujita was fired in 1959. visual image for the new company and was that Steinweiss had and for the same salary— I asked Neil Fujita whom he had replaced After talking to Roy Kuhlman about his given a free hand in the design of catalogs, $65 per week—had been named president. at CBS Records, and he said, “No one. There CBS tenure, I called back Neil Fujita to try to mailing pieces, posters, letterheads, and finally Lieberson and Steinweiss were old friends, hav- was only an advertising manager, and he stayed straighten out the discrepancies in their sto- the design of album covers. The 78 rpm records ing worked on a myriad of record releases over in place.” ries. Fujita said, “You know, Paula, someone were packaged in plain gray or tan folders, with the years. When Steinweiss went to see him, Fujita said that he had to develop a depart- once told me the higher you get, the more peo- the name of the album simply positioned on Lieberson said, “Who’s going to protect you, ment from nothing. This began by upsetting the ple you have looking at your behind!” the cover in black or gold. Steinweiss thought now that your buddy Ted Wallerstein is out?” arrangements that freelance designers and Still later, Neil Fujita came to visit me in my this was no way to present a beautiful thing to Steinweiss said, “The quality of my work is the studios had with the company because he had studio. He talked about the department he built the public, so he began designing bright, color- only protection I need!” been hired gradually to do all the design inter- and the designers he hired: Peter Adler, Bob ful, posterlike covers. Originally management Steinweiss adds that the newly appointed nally. He started with a secretary. Within a pe- Sullivan, Ken Deardoff, George Gecomba, Marty balked because of the increased production art director, Neil Fujita, got rid of him within the riod of three years, the department grew to six Moskoff, and Clara Gentry. He told me that he cost, but when sales jumped 800 percent with next month. or seven designers and mechanical artists; by was the art director who initiated the policy of the first release, they got enthusiastic. By 1943, The package Alex Steinweiss invented was the end of six years, he had nearly fifteen on putting the type in the top third of the record Steinweiss had a staff of four or five designers, later known in the trade as the “wrap-pack.” It staff. He started by doing all the record covers cover so it would be displayed properly. This rule including James Flora and Bob Jones, plus ten was printed on pieces of paper that were pasted for Columbia Records and Epic Records plus has been record-business dogma ever since. writers and other specialists. on a board backing. In the late 1960s, the shore- the promotional work. Some advertising was I asked him about the marketing depart- During the war, in 1944, Steinweiss joined a pack was introduced, for which the image was done before an ad agency was retained. He ment, and he said, “Oh, you mean sales! Yes, unit of the navy that produced training ads for printed directly on a board and folded into the worked very closely with sales and A&R. they were involved, but I had no problem with sailors. It was located in New York, and he con- package. CBS Records still manufactures wrap- He started by working in Bridgeport, them. That stuff came later!” tinued to design album covers for CBS on a packs. The manufacturer is still Imperial Paper Connecticut, at the company’s plant and had to Fujita did remember two of the freelance freelance basis. His hours for the navy were Box Corporation. learn how a record was made and how records studios that he replaced. “There was a studio from 8 A.M. to 4 P.M., and then he’d go home and I told Steinweiss that a lot of my talk here were packaged and mailed. He began design- called Monogram, and there was another guy work on album covers until 11 or 12 at night. would center on the rise in power of the CBS ing the company’s identity and everything re- named Art Schlosser.” Roy Kuhlman: 1954–55 Kuhlman was often asked to design flyers I asked him what the allure of record cov- cial and charming. His demeanor was one of a for the sales department, usually 6,000 titles for ers was in those days. He said, “They were big- tall, elegant hipster, sophisticated and chic. Roy Kuhlman was the art director hired to re- the record club, in a one-page format. His de- ger than book jackets!” Goddard Lieberson had cast the perfect art di- place Neil Fujita for one fateful year. Fujita said signs were too simple for sales, and they quickly rector. that he had originally recommended Art Kane, went back to their agency. Some of the records Bob Cato: 1959–68 and John Berg: 1960–84 Cato’s initial graphic input was in advertis- but Kane didn’t want to do it and suggested needed special inserts for musical comment or ing. He hired Richard Avedon and Irving Penn to that Fujita hire Roy Kuhlman, who was a young biographical notes, so he hired a hot young de- Bob Cato told me that he originally met Goddard shoot big, glossy celebrity ads. He believed the art director who did a lot of good work for signer named Ivan Chermayeff to handle the Lieberson in 1949. Lieberson wanted to pack- recording artists should become more involved Grove Press. promotional things. age a special twelve-record set of contemporary in their album covers. Barbra Streisand was the Kuhlman remembers that Fujita called and It was almost a year to the day since he was authors reading the spoken word. Mitch Miller, first recording artist actually to come in and said he was going to recommend him for his hired, and he was still having a ball. The sales de- the powerful head of A&R in the 1950s and move around type. Cato loved it. Streisand loved job because he was planning to leave CBS partment was well trained, and the budget was 1960s, had recommended Cato to Lieberson. it. Lieberson loved it. A trend was set that would Records. He asked Roy if he wanted it. balanced, when he got a call to see Lieberson. There was an instant rapport between Lieberson become expensive, annoying, and irreversible. Roy said, “Want it? Ye gods! Want it? I “Roy, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for and Cato, and Lieberson, a mere vice president CBS Records at that time made its money thought I was going to have to bump someone you. I’m afraid we’re going to have to let you go.” at that time, told Cato he would hire him when on big-selling musicals, like My Fair Lady, and off to get a shot at something like this…to get This was quite a surprise, and Roy asked, “Has he became president of the company. popular mainstream artists, such as Johnny paid for doing album jackets!” anyone had any complaints about my perform- I don’t understand why he had to wait to Mathis and Ray Conniff. Lieberson allowed the So he put on his best Phil’s Men’s Shop ance as art director?” become president in order to hire Cato, be- classical division to lose money as long as the suit, and Fujita ushered him into the baroque of- “No, Roy. That’s not the reason,” Lieberson cause he seemed to be capable of hiring and pop division supported it. Lieberson was build- fice of Goddard Lieberson. Kuhlman was prop- said. “Neil Fujita wants his job back, and we firing art directors all through the fifties; but he ing an image of himself and CBS Records in erly awed by the salary offered but succeeded in feel obligated to give it to him.” did in fact hire Bob Cato right after he was the CBS corporate mold: a classy company hiding the fact. He was not awed by the dinky, Kuhlman’s epilogue to this story was that named president. that produces a public-worthy product but is scrungy bull-pen they told him was his new of- Neil Fujita had left to start his own studio, and Cato also told me that he had to put to- not above putting out a lot of garbage for the fice. It looked very much like what he imagined Kuhlman had not given that studio very much gether an art department quickly because, in his quick buck. CBS was proud of their classical the owner of a sweatshop in the Garment District work because he didn’t like their portfolio. words, “There wasn’t much there.” division, called Masterworks, and their jazz might call an office. One thing that’s troubled me throughout artists, like Miles Davis. John Hammond, a bril- Fujita let Kuhlman in on the budgets: total I was surprised to find out that Ivan Chermayeff my research is that every art director so far, in- liant A&R man, had recorded Billie Holiday and $300 per, all-inclusive. That meant all: artwork, had worked for CBS Records, and I called to get cluding Cato, had to run out and set up a com- Bessie Smith, and later discovered Bob Dylan type, stats, and mechanicals. But that didn’t his recollection of the time. He remembered a pletely new art department. There was never and Bruce Springsteen. bother Kuhlman; he’d been doing Grove Press bizarre thing that had happened. He was hired anything there. Where did it all go? Cato hired John Berg, a graduate of Cooper covers for a third of that. He felt like a tycoon. He by Roy Kuhlman to work on promotional things, The department Cato built was called Union who was working as the art director of hired a secretary and got it out in the grapevine but when he turned up for his first day of work, Creative Services, which included packaging, Escapade magazine. Cato was the guru, the that he wanted to see portfolios. he found out that Kuhlman had just been fired. promotion, publicity, and advertising design. This troubleshooter, and the political schmoozer, He was getting along just jim-dandy with Chermayeff said he ended up working for Neil department remains pretty much intact today and Berg ran the nuts and bolts of the opera- sales by using Kuhlman’s law: listening to what Fujita. He described working on promotional and is still called Creative Services. tion. Berg did not have Cato’s savoir faire, nor they had to say, then doing it his way, later con- booklets that ran as long as sixteen pages with was he particularly comfortable with recording vincing them it was the right way for the job. He no time for layout or design, and he specified Cato describes himself as a “music freak.” His artists; but Cato loved them and smoothed out didn’t remember showing designs to recording type by intuition. He described many of the cov- two passions are art and music. He attended the rough edges. Berg liked winning awards artists. Somebody may have, but Kuhlman was ers produced at the time as real garbage—an the Chicago Art Institute and was also a student and finding talent, and he excelled in both blissfully unaware of it. The only artist he met in ugly portrait of Johnny Mathis and a line of of Alexei Brodovitch. Cato had done stints at areas. Over the next twenty years, he would the flesh was a new one they’d just signed on type. Young Chermayeff lasted about six Junior Bazaar and Harper’s Bazaar before being hire a slew of young designers, among them by the name of Johnny Mathis. months at CBS Records before he quit. hired by Lieberson. He was phenomenally so- Henrietta Condak, Virginia Team, Ron Coro, Ed Lee, Richard Mantel, Tony Lane, Nancy Donald, Cato hated Davis. To Cato, Davis was “pure Clive Davis never really bothered Berg, but nent fixture at CBS Records and an institution, Anne Garner, Lloyd Ziff, John Crocker, Karen sleaze” and unworthy of Lieberson’s position. some product managers did. Berg threw them and had direct access to the president regard- Lee Grant, Allen Weinberg, Teresa Alfieri, Gerry Apparently the feeling was mutual. Almost from out of his office. But most product managers less of the maze. Huerta, Andy Engle, Carin Goldberg, Gene Grief, the day he became president, Davis began med- were in awe of Berg because they had grown up Goddard Lieberson died of cancer in 1977. Chris Austopchuk, and me. He and his design- dling with Cato’s ads. Cato quit. with his record covers. He had been ill throughout the seventies. All of ers would also rack up a steady stream of John Berg inherited Cato’s job, but Berg In 1972, there was drug scandal in the the major vice presidents attended the funeral, awards for the cover department, which would didn’t want to be responsible for advertising. He Columbia label’s A&R department. Clive Davis but the majority of the people who then worked enhance its reputation and glamour. suggested that Creative Services be split into may or may not have been implicated, but he for CBS Records were unmoved. Most had been The Cato/Berg marriage set a perfect con- two separate divisions: promotion and packaging. was fired for using corporate funds to pay for hired after 1968 and had no idea who Goddard dition for exploratory design. Cato created har- Promotion was given to Arnold Levine, who had his son’s bar mitzvah. The whole public scandal Lieberson was. mony both within the corporation and with the designed ads under Cato. Berg kept packaging. tainted the relationship between CBS Records In 1979, CBS Records, which had experi- recording artists. The art department was ex- CBS Records first hired me in the promotion and CBS corporate, which would steadily worsen enced nothing but continual growth in sales and pected to be creative. This resulted in making department in 1971, three years after Creative over the years. size for twenty-five years, crashed. For the first the CBS Records packaging department one of Services split. I worked for Arnold Levine. I was For a year, someone from CBS corporate time, records were returned from the stores in the real hot spots in New York, with a line there for two and a half years and never had any managed CBS Records, and then Bruce Lundvall huge amounts. There was a recession. Blank around the block filled with young designers, il- idea that promotion and packaging had ever was appointed president. Lundvall had grown up cassettes were outselling records. Kids were lustrators, and photographers all clamoring to been one department. The two departments in the records division. He was a Lieberson man. taping from the radio and spending their pocket get a crack at the big graphic lollipop. The were on the same floor at Black Rock. Both He loved the cover department and John Berg. money on video games. CBS Records, once a record cover was king. sides were filled with designers, but an icy wall The seventies were an incredible time for huge profit center for CBS corporate, for the This didn’t mean that there still wasn’t existed between the two. The packaging depart- the record industry. One year of profits was big- first time did not make its sales expectations. garbage. There was a lot of it; there was still ment was the glory department, and the promo- ger than the next. CBS Records seemed to sell There is nothing more horrific within a the Johnny Mathis and Ray Conniff cover. Later, tion department was the cootie department. anything it shipped to the stores. The company corporation than the climate of fear that exists heavy-metal rock would become the garbage Clive Davis rewrote almost every ad. I left and grew layered and fat. Departments got restruc- in a time of massive layoffs. At CBS, the cover. There was the garbage country and west- went to Atlantic Records, where I began design- tured and restructured again. Berg got older layoffs came in waves every six months, then ern cover and the garbage R&B cover. Anything ing record covers. John Berg hired me back to while the rest of the company got younger. more frequently. They were known as “Black was potentially garbage, but anything was also CBS exactly one year later, after my cooties had Product managers cut their hair and became Fridays.” CBS Records was scaling down. They potentially good. There was simply a lot of every- been sufficiently removed. vice presidents. Creative Services became part closed plants; they closed branches; they fired thing, with plenty of room for tremendous suc- Along with the major changes of 1968 of something called Central Core Marketing, secretaries and merged departments. Bruce cess and terrible failure. came the invention of something called “prod- which was headed by a vice president of mer- Lundvall was demoted and quit. Another In 1968, four major events took place that uct management.” Product managers were de- chandising, who reported to the vice president president was hired and fired and replaced with would begin to change the company forever. signed to be liaisons between the recording of sales. The vice president of merchandising one even scarier than the last. It was like a Lieberson was promoted into the corporate artist and the company. They became the core changed three times in two and a half years. burning office building. One didn’t know whether arena, and Clive Davis, a company lawyer, was of the marketing department. In the late 1960s Two of them were promoted to vice president to jump out the window or stay and get burned. named president. Lieberson had become con- and early 1970s, product managers were nice of something else. The packaging department John Berg got burned in 1984. The merchandis- vinced during the sixties that CBS Records had hippies who had majored in liberal arts in col- became larger also. Branches had opened in ing vice president decided to merge packaging to become a rock-and-roll company. lege and liked to hang around with rock bands. Nashville and Los Angeles. and promotion back together, with himself as In the early 1980s, product managers were Above all this was Bruce Lundvall, who still manager, and appointed Holland McDonald, Contrary to legend, it was Lieberson, not Clive nice yuppies who had majored in business in loved his art department, which was now re- who then ran the promotion department, to be Davis, who initiated CBS’s presence at the college and liked to hang around with rock ferred to as the “famous award-winning pack- the head art director on the East Coast. Monterey Pop Festival in 1968, which led to the bands. Some of them knew an enormous aging department.” I jumped out the window in 1982. In the signing of Janis Joplin, Sly Stone, and the amount about music, and a few of them actually Berg was untouched by the new maze of midst of horrific corporate fear, I was having end- Byrds—but Clive Davis took the credit. had very good ideas for record covers. corporate hierarchy. He had become a perma- less battles with the marketing department. If I had not spent the past six months re- the New York office and did not suffer the one to three years. Masterworks has already I.D. Magazine considered a number of de- searching and remembering CBS Records, I same political problems. begun discontinuing LPs. The whole Master- signers for its redesign and asked at least one would have told you that marketing considera- CBS Records’ sales position had improved works operation is being moved to Germany. I of them to provide comps on spec but did not tions overpowered everything, killed creativity, dramatically with the help of MTV, the new tech- have been told that the new German manage- award him the job. and destroyed the Cato/Berg art department. I nology of compact discs, and the phenomenal ment was appalled to discover how much input The Industrial Designers Society of America am beginning to realize that marketing in the performance of superstars like Michael Jackson. American designers had in the creation of clas- (IDSA) contacted three or more design firms re- abstract has nothing to do with anything and In 1986, Al Teller moved the vice president sical record covers. questing a “proposal” for its new identity pack- never really did at CBS Records, either. of merchandising to the purchasing depart- The long rectangular CD package was de- age even though it was a pro bono job, because There were no market-research surveys. ment and then moved him out of the building veloped by Adam Summers, a creative director they didn’t want to show favoritism. They re- Testing was tried once and then abandoned. and into the Nashville office. Teller then hired at Warner Communications. It is roughly the ceived some critical responses from some of There were no demographic studies. There were Arnold Levine to head up Creative Services. same size as a book jacket. The rectangular CD the design groups they had approached, re- only people. People in something called the Levine had been the head of the promotion de- box became the industry standard in 1985, but scinded their policy, and awarded one firm the “marketing department.” People in something partment under Clive Davis and Bruce Lundvall CBS Records is presently planning to discon- unpaid job. called the “merchandising department.” People but was fired during one of the Black Friday tinue the package in favor of shrink-wrapping The American Institute of Graphic Arts in something called “sales.” Too many people purges in the early eighties and was replaced the plastic CD case. (AIGA), which assigned its annual jacket to a de- in a corporation that had ballooned too quickly. by Holland McDonald. Al Teller restructured In four to six years, compact discs that are signer on a pro bono basis (plus $1,000 to cover People afraid. People looking to impress other Creative Services by pulling it out of the mer- three inches in diameter will be introduced. expenses), decided that the jacket was too people. People grappling for power or survival, chandising department, which reported to the Their covers will be considerably smaller than important a marketing tool to rely on what the always in the name of something else. sales department. Arnold Levine reported di- book jackets. designated designer submitted. The institute The cover department lost power because rectly to the president of the company. I feel a certain absurdity in the knowledge changed its policy and requested a minimum of the art director no longer had the firm and loyal Holland McDonald didn’t want to work for that I have spent half of my adult life designing three sketches from the chosen designer while support of the president of the company. Arnold Levine again, so he quit. So did some something that is about to become an antique. the assignment remained pro bono, and the ex- other designers. Arnold Levine replaced them. By But how fortunate we all are to be graphic pense money remained $1,000. Holland McDonald and Arnold Levine all accounts, the political clout of the art depart- designers and make these tangible objects—a All of these events occurred in the last ment has grown stronger under Arnold Levine. piece of paper, a folded board—because long year and a half. In that same time period, MTV, Holland McDonald was given the job of uniting CBS Records was sold to Sony in 1988, after all the power regimes rise and fall, rise and a winner of the AIGA Design Leadership two departments that hated each other. He set but the designers say that it hasn’t noticeably fall again, all that remains that is certain and true Award, asked twenty designers and illustrators up a system in which each designer worked on changed anything. is our work. And the work speaks for itself. to create political art for the cause of their everything from the record cover to the small- Shortly after CBS Records was sold to choice, to be aired at the MTV Video Music est ad. The advertising designers liked this, Sony, Al Teller was fired and replaced. The new “THE DEVALUATION OF DESIGN Awards ceremony and to be printed in the pro- and the cover designers hated this. Some of president is still there at this moment. BY THE DESIGN COMMUNITY: I gram. The artists were requested to produce the cover designers quit, and McDonald re- None of the designers I spoke to knew who the art for a fee of $500, which would be do- placed them. McDonald reported to the mer- Alex Steinweiss was. No one knew that Neil HAVE SEEN THE ENEMY, AND HE nated to any charity they designated, with MTV chandising vice president, who didn’t particu- Fujita designed the logo they put on their record IS US” matching the donation. (MTV is owned by larly support him, so the designers were run packages. No one thought that it was particu- Originally published in the AIGA Journal of Viacom, which is currently locked in the ragged by increasingly aggressive product larly odd that they didn’t know. Like everyone Graphic Design, Volume 11, Number 4, 1993 Paramount take over battle.) managers who reported to a very aggressive else before them, including me, they exist in What’s wrong with this picture? Each organization operated with apparently president named Al Teller. their own space and time at CBS Records, igno- The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum altruistic motives, inspired by the design com- The art directors of the West Coast and rant of the past and oblivious of the future. selected five designers in a paid competition munity itself. In three cases, the organizations Nashville offices reported to both the mer- Currently compact discs outsell records by (base price $1,000, though some reportedly got are not-for-profit and rely on funds given by the chandising vice president and a finance per- more than three to one. The expectation is that more) to create a new identity for the museum. communities they support. They are aware that son. They were geographically distanced from LP records will be discontinued altogether in The winner was then awarded the job. many designers would love to work on their projects for prestige or exposure or the oppor- to the American business and civic communities special magazine issues devoted to the busi- where a person could count on making a living. tunity to produce award-winning graphics, and and thereby improve the visual standards and ness of design. These were followed by a The publications of the eighties changed all they emphasize this as the selling point of the expectations of our society. The notion of value plethora of design self-help books, which told that. If the goal of the AIGA was to change the free work. In fact, with so many designers avail- here had very little to do with money. Money is you how to set up your own business, how to general perception of graphic design and to able and eager to work for so little, they proba- only one American symbol of value. The AIGA promote, how to speak correct business jargon, create awareness of the profession, then this bly feel the need to be fair about it and spread was interested in the power of the design pro- how to dress, how to buy insurance, and so on. was our greatest area of success—an ambigu- the opportunity around. When one considers fession, the ability of good graphic designers There was nothing inherently wrong with ous success at best. this, it’s not surprising that MTV would follow in to become powerful enough individually and this except for the subsequent confusion it With all the young designers graduating kind with the added kicker of political-cause af- collectively to persuade cumbersome bureau- caused. “Professional” work did look more pro- from various design programs and entering the filiation. And suddenly Seagram’s has devel- cracies that good design is good business and fessional, and corporate communications in field, the design-publishing boom was on. More oped a similar attitude toward its annual report, good for society. How to do it? Organize a na- general were visually improved. The level of and more awards competitions were founded, which it touts as a “marvelous opportunity for tional community of designers. Publish. Involve design mediocrity rose. Also, practicing de- more magazines, more books on type, on trends, exposure with cachet for any good designer.” the educational community. Alert the press. signers as a rule had previously been rather on letterhead design, package design, shop- They asked three firms to compete and pro- Create a journal, develop dialogue and criti- sloppy about running their businesses. They ping bag design, trademark design, magazine duce several ideas on spec. cism. Record history. Stage a national confer- were easily taken advantage of, didn’t know design, the history of design, famous designers, These events can be blamed on the econ- ence. Create professional practice guidelines. how to construct proposals, and were gener- famous designers from California, famous de- omy or on the overpopulation of the design Encourage press coverage. Create awareness. ally more interested in designing than in mind- signers under forty, women designers, more al- community or, when one gets really far-fetched, The events and activities of the design ing the store, networking, or planning for the ternative design books featuring people left out on young designers using computers. If one is community in the 1980s and 1990s remind me future. The business seminars did no harm, but of other books, and more books one could buy employed by an educational or other institution, of almost every boxing movie I’ve ever seen. the political and economic climate of the eight- into to use for self-promotion. a corporation, a publication, or an organization The young idealistic fighter who has trained ies in general, coupled with the pervasiveness The proliferation of graphic-design books that supports, promotes, or is allied with graphic hard, has good family values, and a nice girl of the “design is a business” hype, perverted in the eighties and nineties made all trends design in some way but does not rely on a pay- back home hooks up with a ne’er-do-well pro- the design community’s overall goal. The goal readily apparent and ripe for immediate imita- ing clientele other than designers for survival, moter with mob ties, who quickly pushes the became money. tion. The graphics publications began reporting one can ignore these events altogether and as- young boxer to fame and fortune so heady and How and Step-by-Step Graphics maga- on design trends like fashion columnists watch- sume they speak only to the commercially com- corrupt that our hero forgets his early family zines were born in this climate. Both publica- ing hemlines. Trends were news. Even the gen- petitive concerns of design firms. Unfortunately, values one by one. He dumps the girl back tions explained how to be a professional graphic eral press could understand them. Recently an they speak to all of us. They are the symptom of home, compromises his principles, breaks his designer. A young reader could learn how to set article in the New York Times’ Style section re- a design community contemptuous of itself, immigrant father’s heart, and finally breaks his up a design business, how to furnish it, how to ported that the typeface Bodoni has become a community so splintered by social, political, fingers, so he can neither fight nor play the vio- buy equipment, how to make a design and sell popular in magazine design. I had never seen academic, sexual, regional, and aesthetic fac- lin. Moral of the story: Don’t forget your values. it to a client, and how to do award-winning work the word Bodoni in the New York Times before, tionalism that it has lost sight of its original In the eighties, the design community wit- just as the rich and famous designers featured but I don’t think this is what we had in mind collective goals. nessed the great rise of “professionalism” in the magazine did. when we wanted to create general graphic de- When I first became active in the AIGA in (now a euphemism for the production of non- It was not surprising that enrollments at sign awareness. the 1970s, its goals were very clear: to promote, innovative but stylishly acceptable work—usu- colleges with halfway decent design programs The increased number of annual award protect, and document the profession of graphic ally in corporate communications—coupled with shot up in the eighties. Graphic design had be- shows put a new financial and professional bur- design and to encourage, support, and recog- very good fees). Along with “professionalism” come a viable profession, with the promise of den on the design community, a heightened nize quality work. What made the AIGA espe- came the “business consultant to the design- glamour and success. In the 1950s and 1960s, sense of obligation to promote, be noticed, pub- cially appealing was its stated tenet: the AIGA ers,” who proclaimed, “Design is a business.” graphic design had been a relatively obscure lished, acclaimed, and have a national presence was about design, not designers. The belief was This became the mantra of the eighties. The profession, largely undocumented and poorly in every annual, in all compendiums then ap- that by elevating the profession of graphic de- AIGA, along with other organizations and publi- reported. As a profession it seemed risky, pop- pearing, in total, almost monthly. The pressure sign, the AIGA would also elevate design value cations, produced seminars, conferences, and ulated by talented mavericks, and not a place was considerably less on older designers with established reputations and recognizable work. Several years ago I thumbed through an It’s hard to write this with dispassion be- design appeared in the following order: For unknown young designers working on cor- Art Directors Club Annual from the mid 1950s. cause I hate mass mantras. I never trust or be- Sustainability (environmentally sensitive), ac- porate communications, promotional material, The print ads all seemed to have dumb line lieve them, because they always pervert them- cessibility (seen by people), technology (the obscure packaging, and obscure magazines, drawings of creatures with smiley faces that selves, even when the mantra is in sync with appropriate use of it), communication (suc- getting noticed was more and more impossible. closely resembled the drawings in Paul Rand’s my own views. Progressive political and social cessfully speaks to its audience), beauty (that The last design firm to gain national standing El Producto ads. The drawings were coupled beliefs are generally lifelong, deeply held con- extra aesthetic “something” that sets the de- through design annuals was the Duffy Design with quaint, poorly letter-spaced typography, victions, not transient group mores. Yes, con- sign apart). Group, in the mid 1980s. If there is no substan- some of it stenciled, some of it, apparently, in al- sciousness can be raised, and I always love it tial change in the number of annuals and fre- ternating colors (the annual was black-and- when someone who voted for Ronald Reagan Had we been constantly reinforcing our original quency of publication, no designer or design white), and some of it with cute little curlicues wakes up and smells the coffee, but I’m nerv- goals, the first three parts of this definition group will gain that kind of national prominence at the ends of the letterforms. The El Producto ous when we try to make converts through the would be irrelevant, merely expected aspects again. The mass of work displayed in the total ads may have been in there too; I honestly don’t AIGA or I.D. Magazine. If they’re that easily of any responsible design. But here, communi- annual publishing output cancels out new de- recall. I just remember that everything looked converted, they may respond just as positively cation and beauty are last, implying that the de- signers. Familiar names remain familiar, and the same—all style and no substance. to the mantra of the next decade, which could sign community is so irresponsible that it can- unfamiliar names stay unfamiliar. It was not surprising that by the end of the well turn out to be fascism. not even meet the minimum requirements. An Pick up a Communication Arts Design “design is a business”–ridden eighties, we got The “social relevance” mantra disturbs me environmentally sensitive design that doesn’t Annual and thumb through it, then flip through good and disgusted with our own rhetoric. The mostly because it confuses and diminishes communicate is a real waste of paper—even Print’s Regional Design Annual. Follow it up “Dangerous Ideas” AIGA National Conference our primary goals. It becomes easy to decry unbleached, recycled paper with the proper with an AIGA Annual, then breeze through the in San Antonio in 1989, which attempted to graphic design as a trivial profession. If one amount of postconsumer waste. An environ- graphic design section of the New York Art highlight important social issues, was a re- factors in all the world wars, diseases, poverty, mentally sensitive design that actually commu- Directors’ Club Annual, Graphis Design, the freshing change from the 1987 conference in illiteracy, and natural disasters, a well-designed nicates its message but looks like such holy American Center for Design 100 Show, the San Francisco, which highlighted an insurance hangtag is silly. But I don’t think the responsi- hell that you don’t want it in your home, on your Society of Publication Designers show, the I.D. salesman. I applaud two social themes explored bility for the visual environment of our society is desk, or in your hands for one minute is still a Magazine Annual Design Review, and wind it all at the conferences: that wasteful packaging is silly or trivial, and collectively, that is our charge. piece of garbage. Visual environmentalism mat- up with the Type Directors Club Annual. Do it all a pollutant, and we need to take responsibility “Social relevance” can also become a ters, now more than ever. in one sitting, and don’t read any of the copy. for it; and that our communications can be pow- strange criterion for judging design. I was on a Overall design goals also become confused Make sure they are all from the same year, or at erful and damaging to people, so we need to jury last year with a judge who voted for work when they are coupled with “women’s issues.” most a year or two apart. The effect will be a take responsibility for them. on the basis of the organization that commis- Women represent the largest percentage of the numbing sameness. There are some general Actually, the messages are the same. We sioned the work. This is OK if the point of the design community while holding the lowest- stylistic differences in the work selected by are responsible for our work and its conse- exhibition is to highlight politically correct or- paying jobs. They feel robbed of opportunity, various annuals, but only when one confronts quences. Responsibility is a crucial part of our ganizations; but if the point is design excel- prestige, and even history. They are constantly the same piece three or four times in different professional ethic. We are also responsible (ac- lence, then a poorly designed brochure for an confronted with the previous and still powerful books does that individual piece develop a cording to our original goals) for encouraging AIDS benefit is not better than a brilliantly de- generation of male design leaders, who, through character of its own, separate from the rest of and supporting quality design. Therefore racism, signed brochure for an investment banking their generation’s culture, remain inherently sex- the work in the publication. In fact, one could sexism, and other forms of personal prejudice company, no matter how much one’s sympa- ist and completely unaware of their bad behav- generalize about contemporary graphic design have no place in the design community. thies run toward the AIDS brochure. ior. There’s valid reason for anger. as viewed in annuals exactly the way Paul That said, I believe that the phrase “social The recently created Chrysler Awards for Also, women as a group face a real struggle Rand did in the essay “From Cassandre to relevance” has replaced “design is a business” Innovation in Design offer a cash prize of in overcoming centuries of sociological bag- Chaos” in Design: Form and Chaos. Rand’s as a mantra for the nineties. Confusing social is- $10,000 to architects, product designers, and gage. They must confront their fears of self-as- analysis of stylistic approaches is separated sues with design issues is dangerous. They’re graphic designers for their individual contribu- sertion, management, and success. In this re- from the intent and content of the work. It over- not the same. tions to society. The items in the program’s spect, the Special Interest Groups provided by generalizes the way annuals do. definition of design excellence for graphic AIGA on the chapter level are immensely help- Coast “establishment” designers, largely from think the last generation to be absorbed in- bent on destroying the design profession. When ful and successful. an older generation, and younger designers cluded Woody Pirtle and Michael Vanderbyl.) this fear is coupled with strange social agendas But there is a tremendous danger of en- with differing cultural and aesthetic sensibili- When they stopped learning young designers’ by some design groups, with angry women, and forcing women’s issues at the expense of the ties. Some ageism can be defined as regional- names, the veterans of graphic design began with bizarre experimental work by design design community’s primary goals. Blatant ism because a lot of the aesthetic splits have to refer to the work in terms of stylistic ele- schools receiving an amazing amount of press tokenism implies that a standard is being to do with technologically experimental design ments, like “layering,” “letterspacing,” “leading,” attention, suddenly it looks like the whole world breached. Contemporary women’s shows and emanating from the West Coast. Some ageism “retro,” and, finally, “that computer stuff.” That is going to the dogs. It looks like the standards books have the same implication. They inad- returns to women’s issues when it involves there was appropriate and inappropriate use of of quality are being destroyed. vertently set different criteria for judging the splits between the so-called East Coast estab- each element became lost on them, simply be- The question then becomes, What is qual- work of women and may serve to diminish real lishment and women who head aesthetic cause of the pervasiveness of it all (exactly my ity work? This is the eternal debate. We know achievement, not promote it. movements (Kathy McCoy at Cranbrook or response when I looked at that Art Directors design must function properly, but design func- At the AIGA National Conference in Miami Lorraine Wilde at CalArts) or socially oriented Club Annual from the fifties). The work had be- tions differently for different problems and au- in 1993, some women were infuriated by the design movements (Sheila de Bretteville at come all style and no substance. diences. Ray Gun works perfectly for its audi- small number of women invited to speak (five Yale). Or ageism can be perceived as the split Knowing (and liking) an individual helps to ence but won’t be received well by someone women were asked, one canceled, and twenty between establishment/practicing designers and mute the competitive animosities caused by over forty-five who doesn’t care about rock and men participated as speakers). The number is academic/experimental designers. aesthetic differences. In the New York design roll. Is it quality or garbage? Aesthetics is a low when we consider how many terrific women Aesthetic debate is crucial to our community community, Pushpin and Herb Lubalin lived tricky business. practitioners, educators, and writers with some- and has always existed. The modernism/eclecti- harmoniously with Vignelli and Rudy de Harak. One can admire the aesthetics of a spe- thing important to contribute there are. But what cism debate has raged for years while devout They all knew one another. Theoretically speak- cific school without loving it. I admire Emigre was worse was that three of the women speak- practitioners on both sides have come together ing, Massimo Vignelli should be as repulsed by without loving it. It’s ten years old now. I ad- ers were giving talks that had the word women in mutual admiration and respect because their Ed Benguiat’s work as he is by that of Rudy mire the publication and some of the type- in the title. This implied that women speak only goal is always the same: quality in graphic de- Vanderlans. But Massimo knows Ed. Ed is a fine faces even though I’ll never use them. But the to women’s issues. In the planning of the con- sign for the betterment of business and society. fellow, and after all, they both agree that what Emigre designers were innovators. I felt the ference, women had accidentally become seg- With ageism, fear, loathing, and disrespect matters most is the continual striving for qual- same way about Herb Lubalin. In fact, I feel the regated, as if operating under a separate bury our overall design goal. The goal of ity. Their goals are the same even if they ap- same way about Paul Rand. I never loved his agenda. The anger of the women at the confer- ageism is power, but not the power and influ- proach them from different directions. work as I love Cassandre’s, El Lissitzky’s, ence was focused on the number of women ence of the design community as a whole. It But the young designers featured in annuals Pierre Mendell’s, and some of Fred Woodward’s though, not the content of the speeches. becomes a power struggle within the various and articles have become faceless and therefore Rolling Stone spreads. But I admire it. I know I’m sure that the conference organizers political and aesthetic factions to win control of valueless to this Eastern Establishment. how important it is. One builds admiration from meant well. Women’s issues were addressed in the debate to define quality. As I’ve stated pre- A progressive community turns reactionary a distance, in retrospect. It takes time. three presentations, more than for any other sin- viously, I’m wary of value being defined by so- when it believes it is about to lose something. With ageism there is no admiration for any gle issue. This kind of thinking, however, either cial and political agendas, but the aesthetic de- This couldn’t be more true of the Eastern work produced by a younger generation. None. by or for women, is ultimately more damaging to bate had become unnecessarily ugly, divisive, Establishment. New technology has totally rev- No shining example, no beacon among the hea- women and the design community than it is and destructive. olutionized the method, craft, and structure of thens. It’s all bad: Neville Brody: bad. Emigre helpful. Women’s issues and overall design I’m not sure how ageism came to be. Its the design practices that have existed for forty garbage. Fabien Baron: a rip-off of Brodovitch. goals don’t necessarily reinforce one another, roots start in the early 1980s with the tremen- years. The technological shift has been coupled Chuck Anderson: too many advertising cuts. and they may create destructive factionalism. dous growth of the design industry and the with a devastated economy, particularly on the Cranbrook: feh. Rick Valicenti: P.U. Et cetera. But an even broader example of angry fac- perversion of its original goals. With the in- East Coast. In the midst of layoffs, price reduc- Pretty soon there’s nothing left to eat. Only de- tionalism that damages our community is crease of design publishing and the prolifera- tions, and a general sense of demoralization, signers from their own generation or the dis- something I have come to call “ageism,” simply tion of annuals, the older generation of design- healthy perspectives become elusive. The com- tant past merit praise. At the end, there is no for want of a better word. Ageism reflects the ers became distanced from the younger gener- puter is seen as an evil enemy, a dangerous debate, no enlightenment—only a divide. And divide between what are perceived to be East ation. They stopped learning their names. (I tool in the hands of valueless incompetents we are all losers. We are losers because the ensuing faction- At the end of all the boxing movies, the a role model? Has role modeling been thrust women designers (me in this case) serves to alism, hurt feelings, confusion, resentment, and fighter always learns that his original ideals were upon you? Please let me know. undermine and diminish achievement. anger are damaging to the most important goals valid and that things went wrong when the ideals The thing of it is I never set out to be the of the community. If we fear and loathe one an- were perverted, corrupted, and abandoned. The Sincerely, only woman blah blah. I set out to be a de- other, how can we persuade society of the collec- same lesson applies to us. Julie Lasky signer. I set out to be a designer who could de- tive value of good design? If we’re all chopped Managing Editor sign all kinds of things well with the hope that into different factions with different agendas, col- “THE BOAT” those things that I designed well would lead me lectively we have no power at all. We destroy our Originally published in Print, March/April 1993 Dear Julie: to even more things to design. I set out as a de- credibility. When we are contemptuous of one Editor’s note: The following letters were ex- I’ve long resisted the notion of writing a signer not thinking that being a woman had another, we invite the contempt of business and changed between Julie Lasky, managing editor “woman’s issue” piece or what it’s like to be much to do with anything. What mattered was society. We devalue design. of Print, and Paula Scher. Lasky’s letter has the only woman blah blah. I’m genuinely un- the work. After all, designers produce tangible Everyday I find myself in supermarkets, dis- been edited for brevity; Scher’s is reproduced comfortable with the subject because I have products. You can see the results. There is phys- count drugstores, video shops, and other envi- in its entirety. conflicting feelings about it. I’d have to have ical evidence of success or failure. I believed ronments that are obviously untouched by our been an ostrich not to have experienced the that good work brought more good work, and community. No “bad Brody” or “Emigre garbage,” Dear Paula: painful exclusivity of corporate boys’ clubs, that money, while dictated by the marketplace, or for that matter, no “saintly” Vignelli, Rand, or Thumbing through the latest AIGA Annual, we glass ceilings, and financial exploitation. I can could mushroom, to a degree, in relationship to Glaser. Just plain, old-fashioned, uncontroversial ran across the picture of Pentagram’s partners sing along with any woman’s group about the good work and reputation. I’ve held these be- bad design, the kind of anonymous bad we’ve gathered together on a boat on the Thames, sexist–insensitive–noncommunicative–emo- liefs for twenty years. I’ve had to, or I would not come to ignore because we’re too busy fighting and we couldn’t help noticing that you were the tionally inept nature of men and add a few two- have been able to continue to work. The ability over the aesthetics of the latest AIGA poster. We only woman in the group. And then we recalled syllable adjectives of my own for good meas- to produce work continually, make professional don’t talk or write about it, it heads no one’s that the art department at CBS Records wasn’t ure. But my confusion comes not in the worthy changes, take advantage of business opportu- agenda, but it’s still most of America. exactly a bastion of feminism, either. politicizing of women’s issues but in their valid nities as they arise, and create the opportuni- So I come back to the petty list from the How would you feel about writing 1,000 or application to a life in graphic design. ties yourself when they don’t arise is absolutely beginning of this article. What’s wrong with the so words for us on the subject of breaking into Every time I give a presentation to a design key to the growth and development of a de- picture is that four organizations that exist in and working for the boys’ clubs? (I know it’s not group, I’m asked what it’s like to be a woman signer, male or female. support of design demonstrated that they have an original topic, but you always provide an blah blah. When I’m invited to give the presen- I don’t believe that pursuing this course absolutely no idea how to hire or work with a original point of view.) Has your experience in tation, I’m told that women will really want to while happening to be a woman is particularly graphic designer. Responding to the contemp- the male-dominated Pentagram of the early hear about being a woman blah blah. They go special, nor do I believe there should be spe- tuous, factionalized climate we have created, 1990s been different from working in the male- like this: “Hello, can you judge the annual cial standards for women. I haven’t “broken” they pitted designers against one another in dominated CBS Records of the early 1980s and Peoria Hang Tag competition? Please say yes into boys’ clubs. I am merely following the path competition for free work, and they lost sight of before? Have you ever suffered tokenism? At because we need a female juror.” How I envy of a life in design at a time when doors are the fact that pro bono is a donation. They as- the Chicago AIGA Conference last year, Cheryl my male partners, who are invited to speak opening for women, not only because they are sume that the designer’s benefit from the free Heller remarked that being the lone woman based on their achievements and prestige as women but also because they are successfully job is greater than theirs. (With all the angry crit- among male professionals brought an element opposed to their sex. I cannot separate my following that path. icism they receive from the various design of surprise that worked to her advantage: She achievements from being a woman blah blah. Which brings me to the photograph of the camps regardless of what is produced, maybe could easily soar above the low expectations of On the other hand, the tokenism has had Pentagram partners on the boat. It is interesting they have a point.) Yet for all our annuals, semi- her colleagues and clients. Has this been your its advantages. I’ve been able to attain a visibil- how one photographic image can perfectly en- nars, conferences, political- and sexual-con- experience? Does your status as a woman ex- ity that might have been harder to come by if I capsulate my feelings. You said you couldn’t sciousness-raising groups, environmental lec- ecutive bring more responsibility in terms of were male. The visibility may be helpful profes- help noticing that I was the only woman on the tures, aesthetic manifestos, and diatribes, re- mentoring other women, both within and be- sionally, but it’s always clouded by the veil of boat. I was less interested in the fact that I was spect and understanding of the graphic design yond your workplace? Do you consider yourself “women’s issues.” How ironic that the grand at- the only woman; I already knew that. I was profession is worse than it was in the seventies. tempt in the graphic community to promote struck more by the pure visual physicality of the Left to Right: Michael Bierut, Kenneth Grange, Alan Fletcher, John Rushworth, Peter Harrison, Theo Crosby, Mervyn Kurlansky, Peter Saville, David Hillman, me, Jim Biber, Kit Hinrichs, Woody Pirtle, Neil Shakery, Colin Forbes, John McConnell, Lowell Williams situation—not the oddity of the sex, but the I joined Pentagram the way I set out to de- more women changing the scale of things and statistics, and demand change; and all the while strangeness in scale. There I am, halfway down sign. I had had a business with one male part- appearing out of scale in the process. change is occurring. Change doesn’t come in the side of the boat, in between rugged David ner for seven years. We had been split for one There are also more underpaid women, one great thump. It comes one by one by one by Hillman and James Biber, who is twice my size. year, and I had continued running the business more women juggling careers and motherhood, one, and it looks kind of funny. Kit Hinrichs, who is actually sitting behind myself. I was offered the opportunity to join more women who feel squeezed out in a bad And then it doesn’t. James Biber, has a head that is half again as Pentagram, and I took it because I wanted to economy, more women going to art school and large as mine. And Colin Forbes, who stands design things well and get more new things to going nowhere afterwards, and more women Sincerely, with John McConnell and Lowell Williams way in design. There’s no more to it than that. No cru- who are resentful of their lack of success “be- Paula Scher the back, appears much larger than me. I look sade, no breaking down back-room doors. I cause they are women.” There are more women Partner, Pentagram Design, Inc. like a person who was originally standing far took some personal risk to take advantage of a in design groups, more women’s panels, more beyond Lowell Williams and was then stripped new business opportunity, with the price being women mentoring women, more women who into the middle of the photograph but not the daily discomfort of being out of scale. want women to mentor them, more women blown up in proportion to the new position. I can’t equate Pentagram and CBS Records. looking for women role models, and more The photograph has made me look at my Pentagram is a group of very intelligent, tal- women who don’t like other women’s success. own professional situation and those of other ented, and relatively sensitive men who design I don’t know what my responsibility is in all women today as a matter of strange scale. I’m in well and want to get more new things to design. this. I’m not sure I have one as it relates to the picture, but I’m not blown up in proportion to I may be out of scale at Pentagram, but I was out women in general. There are things I’ve done the new position. (If the photograph had pictured of sync at CBS Records. That’s much worse than naturally through relationships that existed by the same number of men and women, the scale being out of scale. One doesn’t have to be a chance. I felt supportive of the terrific women wouldn’t be strange; I’d just be short.) woman to be out of sync. All that requires is for designers at CBS Records because they were I saw a similar thing in the New York Times one to have a completely different set of values my friends. I have encouraged talented stu- several weeks ago. There was Donna Shalala than the larger group. Being out of scale can be dents, male and female, equally. I’ve supported standing next to Bill Clinton and Al Gore and uncomfortable. Being out of sync is dangerous. those people I know and care about who want some male senators and newly appointed cab- Women need to learn the difference. to design well and get more things to design. It inet members, and she was not blown up in It seems to me from your letter, particularly is not a planned activity or a duty; it is simply proportion to her new position. The same in reference to Cheryl Heller’s talk, that you are part of a life in design. week, in the same New York Times, I read looking for some sort of modus operandi for I don’t want to be anyone’s “role model.” I about how women’s groups were upset with surviving in male-dominated working situations. dislike the term because it diminishes my life Clinton for not appointing enough women to There isn’t one. Men are different. Situations are by implying that I’m playing some kind of role cabinet posts and how Clinton railed against different. And women are different. The only for other people’s benefit. It places my entire the quotas. All of this served to diminish the thing that is a constant for me is my relationship life out of scale. wonderful accomplishments of the excellent to my work. When I find myself in a professional This takes me back to the picture on the women who were appointed. One woman in situation that is purely about politics or person- boat, where I’m confronted with my own image the group. Two women in the group. Their alities and not about the effectiveness of design, within a group. The boat ride on the Thames individuality is lost, and all one sees is the I tend to fail. was really lovely. There was a good lunch, ter- strangeness of scale. Which brings me back to my ambiguous rific conversation, and all in all it was the most I’m physically odd at Pentagram, the way I’m feelings about women’s issues in relation to de- pleasant part of an exhausting partners meet- physically odd at a corporate meeting with sign. A profession that has long been dominated ing. I don’t remember feeling like an oddity on clients who happen to be men. I’m physically by men is changing. There are simply more that boat, but in the photo there is that odd to women who work for men in groups and women. There are more women who are terrific strangeness of scale. view me as out of scale to the men in those designers, more women running their own busi- Women’s issues in design are focused groups. nesses, more women corporate executives, on scale. We count the numbers, look at the CREDITS Champagne, 1979 Prokofiev, Lees, 1978 Art Direction: Tony Sellari, Jackie 2000 page, 2000 Metropolis magazine, “Threepenny Opera” Bob James, Heads, 1977 Best of Dexter Gordon, Michaela Sullivan Murphy, M&Co. Design: Paula Scher, Design/Illustration: 1999 poster by Paul Davis for PART 1: CORPORATE Mark Colby, Serpentine 1979 Design: Paula Scher Copy: Paula Scher, Avni Patel Paula Scher Editorial redesign: Paula The Public Theater, 1976 POLITICS 101 Fire, 1978 The Best of Jazz poster, Illustration: Karen Barbour Steve Heller, Bob Sloan, Scher, Anke Stohlmann, Reprinted with the per- Design: Paula Scher 1979 James Dean: Behind Danny Abelson “Wonderbrands West” PART 3: IN THE Keith Daigle mission of Paul Davis All work in this section for Photography: Trust Elvis poster, 1981 the Scene for Carol Illustration: Eric Dinyer poster for Metropolis COMPANY OF MEN Issues pictured: CBS Records unless John Paul Endress Design: Paula Scher Publishing / Birch Lane Deli photography: magazine, 1999 Creative Direction: American Wood Type: otherwise noted. Barrabas, Heart of the Press, 1990 Edward Spiro Design: Paula Scher, The Public Theater Paula Scher 1828-1900 by Rob Roy City, Atlantic Records, Art Direction: Steve Brower Keith Daigle identity, 1994 Art Direction: Kelly © 1968 Van Eric Gale, Ginseng 1975 PART 2: STYLE WARS Design: Paula Scher, “To Be Good Is Not Design: Paula Scher, Esther Bridavsky Nostrand Reinhold Co. Woman, 1976 Design: Paula Scher Ron Louie Enough…” poster for “Net@work” poster for Ron Louie, Lisa Mazur Photography: François Reprinted with permission Design: Paula Scher Photography: Great Beginnings for Photos from Warner Bros. School of Visual Arts, Metropolis, 2000 Robert, Judith Turner, Lettering: Andy Engel Arnold Rosenberg Koppel & Scher, 1984 Archives 1987 Design: Paula Scher, New York Shakespeare Charlie Drevstam, Portrait of George C. Illustration: David Wilcox Retouching: Ralph Wernli Design: Paula Scher, “Art Is…” poster for SVA, Keith Daigle, Tina Chang Festival campaigns, John Ricisiak, Wolfe by Paul Davis for Terry Koppel, Rosemary Those Lips, Those Eyes 1996 1994-2001 Elizabeth Felicella The New Yorker, 1996 Eric Gale, Leonard Bernstein, Intrieri, Anne Petter, for Carol Publishing / Design: Paula Scher Tategumi Yokogumi Design: Paula Scher, Ron Reprinted with the per- Multiplication, 1977 Poulenc, Stravinsky, Richard Mantel, Birch Lane Press, 1992 magazine cover, 1999 Louie, Lisa Mazur, Jane 770 Broadway for mission of Paul Davis Yardbirds Favorites, 1977 1976 Jackie Murphy Art Direction: Steve Brower “Great Ideas Never Art Direction: Ikko Tanaka Mella, Anke Stohlmann, Vornado Realty Trust, 2000 Ralph Macdonald Design: Paula Scher Design: Paula Scher, Happen…” poster for Design: Paula Scher Tina Chang, Sean Carmody Design: Paula Scher, Spread from Us, 1998 Universal Rhythm, 1979 Fabrication: Nick Manhattan Records David Matt, Ron Louie SVA, 1992 Rion Byrd, Dok Chon, Photo: Davis Factor/ Googie & Tom Coppola, Fasciano identity, 1984 Photos from the Lou Art Direction: Useless Information for The Public Theater Bob Stern Corbis Outline Shine the Light of Love, Design: Paula Scher, Valentino Collection Silas Rhodes Champion International, posters, 1994-2001 Architecture: Hardy Article by Tom O'Neill, Us 1980 50 Years of Jazz Guitar, Rosemary Intrieri, Jackie Design: Paula Scher 1992 Design: Paula Scher, Ron Holzman Pfeiffer Magazine, March 1998 Design: Paula Scher 1976 Murphy, Anne Petter, A Room of One’s Own Copy: Dee Ito Design: Paula Scher, Louie, Lisa Mazur, Anke ©Us Weekly LLC, 1998. Illustration: David Wilcox Design: Paula Scher Drew Hodges for Heritage Press, 1993 Ron Louie Stohlmann, Keith Daigle, 3Com packaging guide- All rights reserved. Fabrication: Nick Illustration (label ideas): Design: Paula Scher, “Silent Night” poster for Copy: Tony Hendra, Christoph Niemann lines, 2001 Reprinted by permission. Sidewalks of New York, Fasciano Jon Matulka, Louis Ron Louie Ambassador Arts / Paula Scher Photography: Paula Design: Paula Scher, 1976 Lozowick, Guy Billout, Photography: Duane Serigraphia, 1988 Research: Court, Teresa Lizotte, Tina Chang Page from New York Heatwave, Too Hot to Urgent, Thinking Out Hugh Kepets, Jim Michals “The Big A” poster for Melissa Hoffman Peter Harrison, Carol magazine, 1997 Handle, 1977 Loud, EMI-Manhattan McMullan (not shown) Ambassador Arts, 1991 Series Art Direction: Rosegg, Lois Greenfield New 42nd Street Reprinted with permission Design: Paula Scher Records, 1987 Grimm for Heritage Design: Paula Scher Paula Scher, Bill Drenttel Studios/The Duke Illustration: Robert Design: Paula Scher The Films of Jack Press, 1997 Food photos by Bring in ‘Da Noise, Bring Theater, 2000 Ad for Chicago from the Grossman Photography: Nicholson cover for Carol Design: Paula Scher, Alphabet poster series Buddy Endress in ‘Da Funk Broadway Design: Paula Scher, Dok New York Times, 1996 John Paul Endress Publishing / Citadel Press, Lisa Mazur for Ambassador Arts / Photos in “The Two-Party campaigns,1996-1998 Chon, Rion Byrd, Bob Reprinted with the per- Lake, Lake, 1977 1990 Illustration: Seymour Champion International, System” spread courtesy Design: Paula Scher, Lisa Stern, Tina Chang mission of Drew Hodges Lake, Lake 2, 1978 Dance the Night Away, Art Direction: Steve Brower Chwast 1994-95 Wide World Photos Mazur, Anke Stohlmann, Fabrication: Lettera Sign Lake, Paradise Island, 1980 Design: Paula Scher Art Direction: Paula Keith Daigle & Electric Co., VGS, Dale Ad for Mind Games, 1998 1979 Blast, 1979 Suffragettes to Scher, Woody Pirtle Your Name Here for Photography: Richard Travis Associates Reprinted with the per- Lake, Ouch!, 1980 Design: Paula Scher The Album Cover Album She-Devils for Phaidon Design: Michael Bierut, Mohawk Paper Mills, Avedon, Eduardo Patino, Architecture: mission of Marc Salem Design: Paula Scher Illustration: John O’Leary cover for Simon & Press, 1997 Seymour Chwast, Paul 1998 Lois Greenfield Platt Byard Dovell Illustration: James Schuster / Prentice Hall, Design: Paula Scher, Lisa Davis, Shigeo Fukuda, Design: Paula Scher, PROJECT McMullan John Prine, Common 1987 Mazur, Esther Bridavsky, Tom Geismar, Woody Anke Stohlmann, Noise/Funk NJPAC Lucent PHOTOGRAPHY Sense, Atlantic Records, Art Direction: J.C. Suarez Anke Stohlmann Pirtle, Peter Saville, Paula Keith Daigle souvenir program, 1996 Technologies Center for Boston, Boston, 1976 1975 Design: Paula Scher Scher, Rosmarie Tissi, Copy: Paula Scher Design: Paula Scher, Arts Education, 2001 Kurt Koepfle, pp. 175, 191 Design: Paula Scher Design: Paula Scher Öola packaging and Yarom Vardimon Lisa Mazur Design: Paula Scher, Tracey Kroll/Esto, p. 91 Illustration: Roger Illustrator: Zen to Go cover for New identity, 1986-88 “Design Renaissance” Photography: Richard Rion Byrd, Dok Chon, Peter Mauss/Esto, pp. Huyssen Charles B. Slackman American Library / Plume, Design: Paula Scher, AIGA/NY poster, 1999 poster for ICOGRADA, Avedon, Michal Daniel Keith Daigle 237-239, 241-245, 249, Logo: Gerard Huerta 1989 Deborah Bishop, Ron Louie Design: Paula Scher, 1993 Fabrication: Signcraft, 251-254 Eugene Ormandy and Uncommon Wisdom Tina Chang “Dare Dear, Read” On the Town campaign, Inc., ICS Builders, Inc. Peter Margonelli, p. 173 Johnny & Edgar Winter, the Philadelphia cover for Simon & Swatch Watch “Family” poster for AIGA Denver, 1998 Architecture: Kaplan Alfredo Parraga, pp. 58, Together, 1976 Orchestra, Prokofiev: Schuster, 1988 ads, 1984 “Type Is Image” poster 1997 Design: Paula Scher, Gaunt DeSantis Architects 66-70, 74-75, 77-89, 92, Muddy Waters, Hard Peter and the Wolf, 1977 Real Estate cover for Design: Paula Scher, for DDD Gallery, 1999 “Tomato / D’Amato” Keith Daigle 101, 104-105, 108-109, Again, 1977 Design: Paula Scher Simon & Schuster / Drew Hodges Design: Paula Scher, poster for Pentagram, 1998 Photography: ADDITIONAL CREDITS 128-129, 140-144, 146- Design: Paula Scher Illustration: Stan Mack Poseidon Press, 1988 Photography: Gary Heery Keith Daigle Graphic Design USA: 11 Lois Greenfield 149, 171, 194-197 Photography: Richard Thank God for the Atom cover for AIGA, 1990 Boston LP cover paint- Matt Petosa, pp. 198-199 Avedon Al Dimeola, John Bomb cover for Simon & Swatch Swiss campaign, Cigarette poster for AIGA “Language Is a Deadly The Wild Party ings by Stephen Keene James Shanks, pp. 198, McLaughlin, Paco Schuster / Summit Books, 1984 Raleigh, 1994 Weapon” illustration for campaign, 2000 Reprinted with the per- 200-201, 211, 215 Muddy Waters, I’m DeLucia, Friday Night in 1988 Design: Paula Scher, Design: Paula Scher, MTV Networks, 1993 Design: Paula Scher, mission of the artist Reven T.C. Wurman, pp. Ready, 1978 San Francisco, 1981 Beijing Jeep cover for Drew Hodges Ron Louie Self-portrait, 1992 Tina Chang 169, 172 Design: Paula Scher Design: Paula Scher Simon & Schuster, 1989 Photographer: “February” illustration for Illustration: Less Than Zero by Brett Illustration: Philip Hays Hand Lettering: Seth Art Direction: Frank Metz Beautiful Faces, John Paul Endress Cooper-Hewitt, National Miguel Covarrubias Easton Ellis © 1985 Shaw Design: Paula Scher Beautiful Faces II, and Design Museum / Simon & Schuster Bob James and Earl Dingbats for Champion “Blah Blah Blah” poster, Universe, 1997 Citi identity, 1998-2001 Reprinted with permission Klugh, One on One, 1979 Charles Mingus, Changes 21 Collected Stories International, 1986-89 based on an illustration South America Design: Paula Scher, Design: Paula Scher One and Changes Two, cover for Houghton Design: Paula Scher, Ron for Worth magazine, 1997 word-map, 1993 Michael Bierut, Tina The Art of New York © Photography: Arnold Atlantic Records, 1974 Mifflin, 1990 Louie, Cheri Dorr, Design: Paula Scher, World word-map, 1998 Chang, Keith Daigle, 1983 Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Rosenberg Jean-Pierre Rampal, Growing Up in Moscow Deborah Bishop, Keith Daigle USA word-map, 1999 Anke Stohlmann, Reprinted with the per- Japanese Melodies, 1978 cover for Houghton Mifflin Rosemary Intrieri, Jackie Manhattan word-map, Brett Traylor mission of Steven Heller Mongo Santamaria, The Yardbirds, Great / Ticknor & Fields, 1989 Murphy, LuAnn Graffeo, Toulouse-Lautrec poster 2002 Red Hot, 1979 Hits, 1977 Art Direction: Michaela Mary Bess Heim, for Le nouveau Salon des “Head” illustration for the Ballet Tech identity and Word and Image: Bob James, H, 1980 Best of Phoebe Snow, Sullivan David Matt Cent / Scheufelen, 2001 New York Times Op-Ed posters, 1997-2002 Posters from the Bob James, Touchdown, 1981 Design: Paula Scher Design: Paula Scher, page, 1998 Design: Paula Scher, Lisa Collection of the 1978 Busch Serkin Busch, Print, parody issue, 1985 Sean Carmody “Defective Equipment: Mazur, Anke Stohlmann, Museum of Modern Art Wilbert Longmire, Schubert: Trio No. 2 in Goodbye, Columbus Co-editors: Paula Scher The Palm Beach County Keith Daigle © 1968 The Museum of Sunny Side Up, 1978 E-Flat Major, 1978 cover for Houghton and Steven Heller “Coexistence” poster for Ballot” illustration for the Photography: Modern Art Reprinted with Wilbert Longmire, Gary Graffman, Bartók, Mifflin, 1989 Design: Paula Scher, the Museum on the Seam, New York Times Op-Ed Lois Greenfield the permission of MOMA My editor Mark John Rushworth Ron Louie Lynn Breslin John Fontana Stephen Hinton Phil Meggs Steven Reed Michael Vanderbyl Lamster, who Peter Saville David Matt Esther Bridavsky Marty Fox Brad Holland Linda Mele-Flynn Susan Reinhold Yarom Vardimon encouraged me to Neil Shakery Lisa Mazur Steven Brower Bill Freston Jim Houghton Pierre Mendell David Rhodes Carol Wahler write this book DJ Stout Jane Mella Bob Brown Judith Marilyn Hoyt Alicia Messina Silas Rhodes Katie Watts and gave me Lisa Strausfeld Jennifer Muller David Brown Friedlaender Gerard Huerta Frank Metz Nancy Rice Alan Weinberg pivotal advice Daniel Weil Jackie Murphy Saul Brown Alan Friedman Roger Huyssen Jackie Meyer Margaret Tom Weir that made it better. Lowell Williams Christoph Peter Buchanan- Benno Friedman Warren Infield Duane Michals Richardson Phillippe Niemann Smith Howard Fritzen Karrie Jacobs Melissa Milgram Rebecca Weissbecker Robertson My graphic design Partners (in work) Tim Nuhn Cora Cahan Janet Froelich Bob James Victoria Milne Laura Wenke David Rockwell team at Pentagram, Dottie O’Conner Linda Cahill Shigeo Fukuda Stewart Jones Giselle Minoli Ralph Wernli All of the work Susan Rodriguez who designed this Avni Patel Tracey Cameron Ellen Futter Tibor Kalman Patrick Mitchell Peter Wertimer produced in this Arnold Rosenberg book a million Ann Petter Deborah Carr Tom Geismar Emil Kang Susan Mitchell Bride Whelan book exists as Jack Rosenthal times, principally Tracey Primavera Jim Charney Steff Geissbuhler Michael Kaplan Ivette Montes David Wilcox collaboration with Carl Ross Tina Chang and Allen Richardson Rick Chertoff Milton Glaser Rich Kaplan de Oca Richard Wilde many talented Walter Rossi Sean Carmody on Tony (Bodoni) Ed Chiquitueto Lester Glasner Karen Karp Kristine Moore Tracy Williams young designers, Sellari Richard Roth the cover and Maggie Christ Adam Glick Wendy Katcher Celia Moreira Dick Wingate who began their Anke Stohlmann Steve Roth spreads, Keith Gerald Clerc Nathan Gluck Karen Katz Vickie Morgan Richard Winkler careers working Jany Tran Randal Rothenberg Daigle on the Jeanne Collins David Glue Andrea Klein Jennifer Morla George C. Wolfe with me. Michele Willems Greg Colucci Carin Goldberg Adam Moss Ruth & Marvin Amy Wolfson charts, Steffi Jauss, Chip Kidd Sackner They are: Elsie Woolcock Henrietta Condak Larry Goldman Christopher Mount Wang Xu who coordinated Tom Kluepfel Stefan Sagmeister Richard Baker Barbara Cooke Stan Goodman Dixon Muller Susan Yelovich and typed it, and Frank Lalli Paul Sahre Daphna Bavli Partners Joanne Cossa Morris Greenberg Terry Nemeth Artie Yourainian ThanksKurt Koepfle and ForTony Lane Scott Santoro Gina Bello (in collaboration Jim Brown, who Jean Coyne Nancy Greenberg Criswell Lappin Barbara Nessim Stanislas Zagorski Weston Bingham or commiseration Todd Schliemann provided the Patrick Coyne Ric Grefé Julie Lasky Marty Neumeier Lloyd Ziff Deborah Bishop or competition) Jim Schmidt archive research. Richard Coyne Gene Greif Maud Lavin Joseph Nevin Michael Zweck- Rion Byrd John Alcorn Donald Schmitt Bronner Bart Crosby Bob Grossman Lou Lenzi Jared Nickerson Sean Carmody Richard Alcott Olga Schubart Daniel Zylberberg My partners Michelle Cuomo Barbara Gunn Martin Leventhal Bobbie Oakley Tina Chang Hugh Aldersey- Marc Schulman Terry Koppel Cristina Cursino Ellen Guskind Herb Levitt Emily Oberman Dok Chon Williams Joe Scorsone Myrna Davis Bob Guisti Harris Lewine John O’Leary Billy Cole Julian Allen Sandra Seim (at Pentagram) Paul Davis Haber Robert Lewis Dennis Ortiz Lopez Tim (Kiwi) Margarida Amaro Typographers Jackie Seow Lorenzo Apicella Bob Defrin Nina Link Alfredo Parraga Convery Chuck Anderson Brian Hagawara Evan Shapiro And my partner Jim Biber Tom DeKay Margo Lion Greg Parsons Darren Crawforth Jim Anderson Peter Hall Seth Shaw in life Michael Bierut Josephine Bob Logan Elena Pavlov Diane Cuddy Philippe Apeloig Didanato Gary Haney Laura Shore Seymour Chwast Bob Brunner Gregory Long Chee Pearlman TheKeith Daigle BobbyGood Arbesfeld Nancy Donald Hugh Hardy WorkEric Siegel Dick Peccorella Theo Crosby Cheri Dorr Dana Arnett Frank Lopez Bonnie Siegler Tyler Donaldson Vikki Hardy Marty Pedersen Alan Fletcher Paula Eastwood Elizabeth Arnold Elaine Louie Tom Smith Bob Downs Sarah Haun Marty Pekar Colin Forbes April Garston Chris Austopchuk Bruce Lundvall Florie Sommers Stephen Doyle Wiley Hausam Janet Perr Michael Gericke Tanja Gaul Susan Avarde Ellen Lupton Lanny Sommese Bill Drenttel Horace Neal Peters Kenneth Grange Kim Gernsbacher- Richard Avedon Havemeyer Liz Lyons Ed Sorel Heinz Edelmann Jim Petersen April Greiman Swiler Irene Bareis Phil Hays Nicholas Susan Soros Sara Eisenman Maccarone Diane Pilgram Fernando LuAnn Graffeo Ola Bartholdson Duncan Hazard David Starr Gutiérrez Stuart Elliott Anne Macdonald Steven Pipes Mary Bess Heim Stephen Bear Gary Heery Steven Starr Peter Harrison John Paul Endress Stan Mack Charles Platt Laurie Henzel Dan Beck Patricia Heiman David Sterling David Hillman Andy Engel Peter Mauss Nicholas Platt Laurie Hinzman Laurie Beckelman Cheryl Heller Bob Stern Kit Hinrichs John Evangelista Kathy McCoy Myron Polenberg Drew Hodges Bill Bennet Steve Heller Abbie Sussman Angus Hyland Nick Fasciano Tony McDowell James Polshek Barbara Ted Bernstein Seamus Henchy Fred Swanson Mervyn Kurlansky Hofrenning Eliot Feld John McElwee Lisa Post Merrill C. Berman Tony Hendra Susan Szenasy John McConnell Rosemary Intrieri Anne Ferril Kevin McLaughlin Beth Povie James Bernard Dick Hess Ikko Tanaka J. Abbott Miller John Jay Louise Fili James McMullan Don Povie Rob Biro Mark Hess Virginia Team Justus Oehler Abbey Kuster Susan Fine Allen McNeary Rick Poynor Ayse Birsel Caroline Rosmarie Tissi Woody Pirtle Annika Larsen Victor Fiorello Gloria McPike Byron Preiss Nicholas Blechman Hightower Ed Tyburski David Pocknell Carmen Lazul Neil Flewellen Liz McQuiston Dan Reardon Stephen Bradshaw John Hildenbiddle Rick Valicenti OVER

A designer I respect warned me that the danger of doing a book on my own work, beyond the obvious egotism involved, is that after its publication I’d be “over.” I’ve been “over” at least three times, rather prominently. Being over is a little embarrassing the first time, but if one considers that the average period of being “not-over” is perhaps five years, possibly now shortening to three, being over is inevitable and something a designer should plan for. The great thing about being over—after one finishes the self-flagellation part—is that one can start right up again. This book is over.