Reasons for Visiting the US Working for Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, the design staff had to respond to the advertising campaigns for medications that were produced on the premises under licenses for American Cyanamid, Lederle, and others. These corporations asked us to use their promotional materials for the European market. A very distinct problem emerged: physicians […]
History
Work Life Evolution in the US
When Dietmar R. Winkler first arrived in the United States in 1959, he brought with him a postwar European pedigree: a modern design ethos, constructivist principles, and precision hand skills. American design was changing and ripe for these ideas. Winkler was in the right place at the right time, notably with one of the most […]
My Education & Work Life in Germany
Education My educational experience in Germany was an early concentration in graphic design at Kunstschule Alsterdamm in Hamburg, an accelerated specialist program that concentrated on professional visual exploration of objective and non-objective graphic imaging—namely, direct observation of natural phenomena, and hand-skill translation from drawing into graphic form; also the construction of classical serif and san-serif […]
1982-83: Brandeis University
After I resigned from the appointment of Dean of CVPA College of Visual and Performing Arts in 1981, I applied for a twelve-month (two semester) leave of absence for the following year from SMU to assist President Bernstein of Brandeis University to upgrade the design of their total program of official university publications. I looked […]
Childhood Reflections
At the beginning of every festival season, in winter, there is a lot of loneliness surging up in me, no matter how hard I try to cover it up. I felt always abandoned, from childhood on, especially by my parents – my mother died early and left me unprotected to life; my father always felt, […]
Płakowice Castle, My birthplace
I was born in the village of Plagwitz, close to Löwenberg, in Germany, now Lwówek Śląski in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. Members of my family were evacuated in February of 1945 to escape the onslaught of Russian troops, ending up and finding refuge with in-laws at the Dutch/German border. The Löwenberg area became […]
MIT: Some Notes on the Unwritten History
It is somewhat dumbfounding to realize how some persons rewrite reality, especially in Design History, which in many ways does not really matter. Design would always like to play a bigger role than all the other professions which aid us in making each day. Still, it is quite amusing to see documents full of little […]
Life in the 1960’s
Reasons for Visiting the USA Working for Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, the design staff had to respond to the advertising campaigns for medications that were produced on the premises under licenses for American Cyanamid, Lederle, and others. These corporations asked us to use their promotional materials for the European market. A very distinct problem emerged; physicians […]
A Brief Biography
Dietmar R. Winkler, educated in design in Hamburg, Germany, is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. He believes that design theory cannot be separated from evolving contemporary and future professional practices. He was director of the Institute of Design at IIT, the director of the School of Art and Design at the University […]