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 example of good design. It was the first […]
In Words
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 […]
Being Abandoned – Being at Home
Christmas 1944 is the moment which signals the beginning of my growing sense of abandonment. It is the last holiday that my parents, sister, and I would spend together. Right thereafter, my father, as general practitioner in medicine, was called to the “Volkssturm,” a German national militia established during the last months of World War […]
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 […]
Notes on Personal Bias
Simplicity vs. Complexity Singularity vs. Plurality When a teacher is given the opportunity to assess the work of students, who are spending time and energy defining their own philosophical positions, I consider it only fair that he is asked to provide a statement so that they can recognize in his presentations and critiques his framework […]
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 […]
Pataphysics
My ambitions were never to become a designer or artist in pursuit of importance, status or notoriety. My interests were always bound to an insatiable appetite for discovery and looking for collaboration in interpreting the discovered phenomena. “Ask a provocative question, and without hesitation I stand ready to explore it to find an answer”, that […]