Herbert H. Stevens, Jr., was an established engineer. Born in Gardner, Maine, in 1913, he attended Georgia Tech in Atlanta, where he received a bachelor of science degree in engineering in 1936; and later attended the New School for Social Research, where he received a master’s degree in liberal studies. As a young engineer at […]
In Words
Tufte and the Harvard Business Review
In the early 1970s, the editors of the Harvard Business Review received a critical letter from Edward Tufte, scolding its design director—me—as basically incompetent in designing intelligent diagrams for the journal’s audience. He introduced himself as an expert and included his book as an example of good design. It was the first edition of the […]
Nicolas Negroponte
…avanti, avanti, avanti,you avant garde architect…have gall, guts, audacity, cheek…jaunt gallantly onward… just don’t gallivant from gala to gala…don’t lose, but guard your integrity…because in your exuberancewanting to be the centerof notoriety or the toast of town, a household word…it’s beginning to show…that you are lagging behind…your cupboard stands bare…now you must play catch up with your principles…begin […]
A hidden, deep feminist struggle at MIT
In the evolution of the office, I suspect a deep feminist struggle was started by Muriel Cooper, who always championed her independence and unpredictability against a male-dominated world, especially when very few women were in primary or leading roles in furthering MIT as an academic institution. This struggle was intuitively joined by Jacqueline Casey. It […]
Commercial Art vs. Graphic Design
Dietmar R. WinklerDesign Practitioner and Educator University of Massachusetts Dartmouth MIT Museum, Cambridge, MassachusettsWednesday, January 9, 2018 A distinct nomenclature change…a name does not change behaviors…things are what they are… Graphic Arts is a term that is used by the printing industry. Here the concept of “arts” does not relate to what we understand as […]
Dynamics of Aesthetic Traditions
When it comes to philosophies, most persons accept the myriads of differentiating philosophies as natural in the evolutionary development of intellect. They recognize that intellectual expressions respond to the various root-sources, like individual cultures and societies from all continents, many religions, all epochs—Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industrialization, Modern and Contemporary—and some generated by specific schools […]
In response: Gates Adresses Harvard Grads 2007
Opinion in response to Thursday, March 22, 2007, Harvard Crimson announcement: Gates Will Address Grads: World’s richest man will get Harvard degree at last—32 years after dropping out In a climate of cultural indifference, and worse, continuous assault on the value of liberal arts education—deemed useless for survival—I was reminded that the original Harvard “core” was about […]
1959–1960’s, in the USA
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 […]
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 […]