TIBOR KALMAN moma.org When you make something no one hates, no one loves it. colorsonrace_1992 1 Tibor Kalman- Born in Budapest in 1949, Kalman Initially, the company worked on and his parents were forced to flee whatever commercial projects it A highly innovative and influential the Soviet Invasion in 1956. They could get before moving towards designer, the onetime editor of Colors settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., the cultural sector and the creation magazine died May 2nd, 1999. when he was 8. Kalman was osta- of content and form in all areas of Kalman passed away with non-Hod- cized in elementary school until he graphic design, as well as industrial kins lymphoma in Puerto Rico: he learned to speak English. “Every- design, film titles, television spots, died as he had lived and worked one thought I was a geek,” he once children’s books (with his wife Maria on: his own terms and with the gen- remarked to writer to Steven Heller. Kalman) and architecture. Clients erosity of spirit and optimism that Kalman parlayed his child hood included Formica, Subaru, The Lim- touched everyone who knew him. isolation into some of his most suc- ited, Chait/Day, Williwear, MTV, cessful design innovations. “he was Restaurant Florent, David Byrne and Tibor Kalman was best known for keenly passionate about things of Talking Heads, and MoMA. Work his groundbreaking work he cre- the American vernacular because he is now archived a Cooper-Hewitt ated with his New York design firm, was not American,” Chee Pearlman, National Design Museum and the M&Co, and his brief yet influen- editor of I.D. magazine, remarked Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. tial editorship of Colors magazine, shortly after Kalman’s funeral. Kalman was art director of Artforum Throughout his 30-year career, Tibor Kalman was born in Buda- from 1987-88 and creative direc- Kalman brought his restless intellec- pest, Hungary in 1949 and emigrated tor of Interview from 1989-91. In tual curiosity and subversive wit to to US with his family in 1956. autumn 1990 he was recruited as edi- everything he worked on-from album From 1967-70 he studied journal- tor-in-chief of a controversial new covers for the Talking Heads to the ism at New York University, where Benetton magazine, Colors. He pro- redevelopment of Times Square, he worked on the university news- duced five issues in New York before Kalman incorporated visual elements paper and joined the radical group closing M&Co in 1993 and moving other designers had never associated Students for a Democratic Society to Rome, where he edited eight more with successful design, and used his (SDS). From 1968 he worked for issues. In September 1995 Kalman work to promote radical politics. the one-store company that even- quit Colors and returned to New tually became the Barnes & Noble York to consider new directions. The influence of his experiments bookshop empire, creating window in typography andimages can be Kalman combined his desire to break displays, store designs, signs and seen everywhere, from music new ground visually with a passion- advertisements. In 1979 Kalman left videos to the design of maga- ate commitment to social causes. to found his own design firm, M&Co. zines, such as Wired and Ray Gun. From his days as an undergradu- ate at New York University, where he was a member od Students for a Democratic Society (he left school to support a Communists Club in Cuba for a period), Kalman’s radi- cal politics and his radical designs were inexorably linked. “ I use con- trary-ism in every part of my life. In design...I’m always trying to turn things upside down and see if they look any better,” he told Charlie Rose in a December1998 interview. Even in the last stages of illness, Kalman continued to push his art- ist-of-change agenda. Pearlman recalled visiting Kalman in the hospital and being subjected to a heartfelt tirade about how the Amer- ican Institute of Graphic Artists should require members to do char- tumblr_njayetObAm itable work. Kalman had a huge 2 Momo.org design to a point of post literacy by making words secondary to images. Momo.org One of Color’s most famous lay- sense of purpose with everything he already created controversy with its outs was the “What if...?” spread did: it kept him alive and it’s also iconoclastic, multicultural ad cam- from the magazine’s race issue: what drove people crazy about him. paign, which featured, among other Using computer graphic programs, (cont’d) images, pictures of a nun Among the people Kalman drove Colors change the race of sev- and a priest kissing, a black woman most crazy were his own employ- eral iconic men and women. Queen nursing a white baby and pictures ees at M&Co. During its salad days Elizabeth was made to look black of an AIDS patient laying on his in the ‘80s, M&Co was legendary and Spike Lee white. The issue deathbed, surrounded by family. among New York designers for its propelled Colors to international Toscani wanted Kalman to create a entertaining and loose office envi- fame, and landed Kalman a spot magazine that embodied the com- ronment-but M&Co’s pursuit of on NBC’s “Today”, but the cata- pany’s radical chic ethos. Kalman perfection and Kalman’s sometimes lysts for Kalman’s departure from assembled a team of designers prickly personality rubbed many the magazine was already in place. and editors and moved, with his employees the wrong way. M&Co wife and two children, to Rome. After a number of run ins with Tos- was known at one point as the revolv- cani (“That was two huge egos ing door of graphic design ,and not With Colors, Kalman found the per- colliding,” Hall says of the two) without reason,” recalls Peter Hall, fect platform of ideas-both visual and the first symptoms of the cancer editor (with Michael Beirut) of and philosophical. With its striking, that would eventually take his life, “Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist” graphic heavy layout and its bilin- Kalman left Colors and returned (1998,Princeton Architectural Press). gual articles on themes like race and with his family to New York, where “Tibor was never happy until you AIDS, Colors was a unique peri- he reopened M&Co and continued couldn’t change anything further. He odical. The magazine he created to work. Among his projects was a was the ultimate perfectionist.” In existed to promote a multinational photographic series quoting every- 1991, Kalman closed M&Co’s New corporation’s brand identity and an day people’s relationship to Times York offices and accepted an offer expansive, multi-ethnic philosophy. Square, which hung on scaffolding to work for Toscani, creative direc- It pushed boundaries in terms of edi- during recent construction of the tor of Bennetton. The company had torial emphasis on politics; it pushed Cond Nast building in Times Square, 3 puter graphic programs, he was sick: {with} him at half Colors change the race strength, with that handicap, we were of several iconic men and well matched. He was formidable. women. Queen Elizabeth Throughout the book’s creation, was made to look black it was tactically understood that and Spike Lee white. The “Perverse Optimist” would be issue propelled Colors Kalman’s legacy. Indeed, it is to international fame, handsomely designed, eclectic and landed a spot on 420-page testament to visionary NBC’s “Today”, but the at work and play: two modes that catalysts for Kalman’s were never far apart for Kalman. departure from the maga- zine was already in place. During cancer treatments he also taught a pictorial narrative After a number of run ins class to graduate students at the with Toscani (“That was School of Visual Arts and directed two huge egos collid- work on his monograph, “Tibor ing,” Hall says of the two) Kalman: Perverse Optimist,” and the first symptoms of the cancer that would In addition to his wife, he survived eventually take his life, by his daughter Lulu Bodoni, and a Kalman left Colors and son, Alex Onomatopoeia; his parents, returned with his family Marianne and George of Gwyned to New York, where he Pa., a brother John of Horsham, Pa., reopened M&Co and con- and a sister Margie of Bristol, PA. and series of Op Art contributions to tinued to work. Among his projects In the last months of his life, The New York Times (cont’d) images, was a photographic series quoting Kalman designed the exhibition pictures of a nun and a priest kiss- everyday people’s relationship to “Tiborocity,”which is at the San ing, a black woman nursing a white Times Square, which hung on scaf- Fransisco Museum Of Modern Art. baby and pictures of an AIDS patient folding during recent construction It consists of “neighborhoods” rep- laying on his deathbed, surrounded of the Cond Nast building in Times resenting different aspects of his by family. Toscani wanted Kalman Square, and series of Op Art con- work and is Kalman’s last testament. to create a magazine that embodied tributions to The New York Times. the company’s radical chic ethos. In the last years of his life, despite his Kalman assembled a team of design- illness, Kalman enjoyed a remarkable ers and editors and moved, with his period of productivity. In addition wife and two children, to Rome. to smaller projects with M&Co, he By:Kristine Hess With Colors, Kalman found the per- oversaw the creation of two books: fect platform of ideas-both visual “Chairman Rolf,” a tribute book and philosophical.