In the mid-fifties, this sign was in one of the classroom-studios of Kunstschule Amsterdam in Hamburg. The gist of it is: Ideas like words are cheap, unless successfully translated into quality images and objects, supported by high intelligence and discipline, selection of appropriate and sensitive metaphors, choice of materials and tools and reflecting high skills […]
Biography
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 […]
James F. Pfeufer, My Sponsor
James F. Pfeufer, 88, died at home on February 6, 2001. He was the husband of Rika Henderson and the late Reed Champion Pfeufer. Mr. Pfeufer was born in Comfort, TX, in 1912. His grandparents were members of the German Freethinker movement who settled the area around 1848. He was raised in Harlem, NY, where […]
Simmons Valz Project
It had never occurred to me that teaching is in my DNA, until recently, now that I am retired, and have the time to think. I understand there were other distant relatives of mine involved in education, but my grandfather (1865–1963) was a headmaster; his brother a music professor at a Berlin conservatory. My father […]
Alexander Nesbitt
Alexander Nesbitt, calligrapher, historian of typography, and teacher, was born 1901 in Paterson, New Jersey. He worked for many years in New York City as a graphic designer and teacher. In 1950, he published “History and Technique of Lettering,” which became a classic in the field. Later, he taught at the Rhode Island School of […]
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 […]
Reach, McClinton and Humphrey
Among many prestigious advertising accounts, like Prudential Insurance and Beautiful Hair Breck, Reach, McClinton and Humphrey was also the agency for EG&G Edgerton, Germeshausen, and Grier, Acushnet Golf Ball -Titleist 3, and Raleigh Bicycles. Because MIT professor Harold Egerton was known for his strobe photography in time and motion research, as well as for sports, […]
Alsterdamm Influences
Max Herrmann Mahlmann Max Herrmann Mahlmann born April 4, 1912, in Hamburg, Germany, was a German painter of Constructivism, graphic designer and design teacher. Life and work Max H. Mahlmann studied with Richard Müller and Wilhelm Rudolph at the Academy of Fine Arts in Dresden from 1934 to 1938. Initially, he also worked as a […]
Robert Berkovitz
Robert Berkovitz was always aware of the structural and ordering powers of good design and typography and its ability in providing aid for traversing complex information environments. In an article, “Design, Development and Evaluation of Computer-Assisted Learning for Speech Science Education” he writes: Graphic Design Issues. We made a number of decisions at the outset […]
Jacqueline S. Casey
Jacqueline S. Casey practiced an intuitive and organic Modernism. From 1955 to 1989, she was a designer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Office of Publications, first under the direction of Muriel Cooper (I believe that this is totally wrong. The only person in charge of all office staff members was John “Mattill” as […]