The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with MIT, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts

MIT’s publishing operations were formally instituted by the creation of an imprint called Technology Press in 1932. This imprint was founded by James R. Killian, Jr., at the time editor of MIT’s Technology Review alumni magazine. He later became MIT president. Killian spent nearly half a morning interviewing me for my position of “staff member” at the MIT Office of Publications. There was not yet a designation of graphic designer. That came much later through filling out forms for New York design competitions. He took personal interest in the visual identity presented to the community through all official publications. The design staff of the MIT Office of Publications was called in frequently to consult in all areas, like MIT alumni publications and MIT Press books.

In 1967, Muriel Cooper, a former member of the MIT Office of Publication, after the work in her freelance design office had died down, took a full-time position as Design Director of the MIT Press not the MIT Office of Publications, which she held until 1974. Among many publications, she designed the Bauhaus book (published by MIT Press in 1969, the fiftieth anniversary of the German design school’s founding). The Bauhaus book was the first indicator of a design approach for press publications.

This project dominated her work for nearly two years. In the process, Cooper had to be introduced to the discipline of modular typography by the staff of the MIT Office of Publications—which should not be confused with the MIT Press. Early at the press, Cooper was the only designer. Her staff consisted of production support personnel only. Muriel Cooper purchased most of the creative design services from Boston and Cambridge studios. One of the studios, namely Omnigraphics (Allan Davis, proprietor and designer), was her major design source, which the credit lines on soft and hard cover books will bear out. It took years for the design staff at the press to expand.