Just found out through Jeff Fisher: Lou Dorfsman, who can legitimately be called one of the heroes of American graphic design, passed away aged 90 on Wednesday.
   Dorfsman is best known for the CBS ident, and was its senior vice president and creative director of advertising and design.
   Dorfsman grew up in the Bronx and wanted to attend NYU to study bacteriology, but the $300 tuition was too high. Instead, he took the examination for the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art and won a four-year scholarship, graduating with top honours.
   He met his wife, Ann Hysa, and long-time collaborator and friend Herb Lubalin—another design legend—while at the Cooper Union. His career began designing exhibits for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York.
   From 1943 to 1946, Dorfsman served in the US Army and won first and second prize in the National Army Arts’ Contest.
   He joined the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1946 after leaving the army and worked with the network for 41 years. He began with CBS Radio, being promoted to art director in 1951, then became creative director of the TV network in 1960.
   Dorfsman became director of design for CBS, Inc. in 1964, and vice-president and creative director of the CBS broadcast group in 1968. By 1978 his title was Senior Vice President and Creative Director for Marketing Communications and Design.
   His love of design and type can be seen with what Dorfsman called the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, a 35 ft wide, 8 ft 6 in tall wall of wooden type that once graced the CBS cafeteria.
   If you look through any book about American graphic design’s history, Dorfsman rightly earned his place.
   At the Things to Look at blog, there are a few of Lou Dorfsman’s more famous works.
   His effect on graphic design is profound and many of us of a certain age will have been inspired by Dorfsman’s work. I remember as a teenager looking through samples of his 1960s’ CBS work, including a fold-out brochure promoting advertising sales, and various programme ads.
   To this day I probably unconsciously put some of these greats’ ideas into practice, and who better to learn from than guys like Lou Dorfsman, Herb Lubalin, Milton Glaser, Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Ed Benguiat and others of that world? Posted by Jack Yan, 01:51  permalink

comments

Post a Comment  Links to this post