Ivan Chermayeff graphic design work
1950-1987
- Collection Overview
- Biographical note
- Scope and Contents of Collection
- Administrative Information
- Related Materials
- Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
- Collection Inventory
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Guide to the Ivan Chermayeff graphic designs, 1950-1987
Collection Overview
- Repository
- Kellen Design Archives
- Creator - Designer
- Chermayeff, Ivan
- Title
- Ivan Chermayeff graphic design work, 1950-1987
- Extent
- 0.2 linear ft: 3 folders (1 print [4 copies], 1 publication, 2 posters)
- Summary
- The collection consists of a print for Chermayeff's mural, "Painting by Computer"; an issue of the Harvard Advocate with cover and illustrations by Chermayeff; and two posters.
Biographical note
Ivan Chermayeff was born in London in 1932 and immigrated to the United States in the 1940s. After attending Harvard University and Chicago's Institute of Design, Chermayeff earned a BFA from Yale. In 1957, Chermayeff formed a partnership with Tom Geismar, whom he'd met at Yale, and Robert Brownjohn. After Brownjohn's departure in 1960, the company, renamed Chermayeff & Geismar Associates, went on to become one of the most powerful graphic design firms in the United States. Specializing in a clean, Bauhaus-inflected style, Chermayeff & Geismar created total graphic programs that often included customized alphabets employed across logos, signage, packaging, and posters. In 1961, their logo for the new Chase Manhattan Bank led to a lasting industry-wide preference for abstraction in corporate identity graphics. Other clients include Xerox, NBC, Mobil Oil, Pam Am, the Museum of Modern Art, the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University, the New York Public Library, National Geographic, PBS, and the Boston transit system (the firm created its lasting “T” identity).
In addition to his successful graphics business, Chermayeff has led a distinguished career as an independent artist. Among his many honors, in 1981 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the Corcoran Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., and in 1999 received a Distinguished Service Award from the New School University. A Trustee of the Museum of Modern Art, he has served as president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), was inducted into the New York Art Directors Hall of Fame, and with Geismar received the Gold Medal of the AIGA and the Yale Art Medal for Outstanding Accomplishments in the Arts.
Scope and Contents of Collection
Includes 4 offset print copies of a mural, "Painting by Computer," conceived by Ivan Chermayeff and produced by Chermayeff & Geismar Associates in 1977; an issue of the Harvard Advocate; and two posters, one for the New York Expo and one for an exhibition by Chermayeff.
Administrative Information
Publication Information
Kellen Design Archives March 9, 2011
66 5th Ave./lobby level/
New York, NY, 10011
212.229.5942
archivist@newschool.edu
Use Restrictions
To publish images of material from this collection, permission must be obtained in writing from the Kellen Design Archives. Please contact: archivist@newschool.edu.
Related Materials
The School of Visual Arts' Milton Glaser Design Study Center and Archives houses the Chermayeff & Geismar Collection. See: http://www.glaserarchives.org/holdings.html#chermayeff
Keywords for Searching Related Subjects
Genre(s)
- Magazines (periodicals).
- Posters.
Occupation(s)
- Graphic designers.
Subject(s)
- Graphic design.
- Illustration.
- Printing -- Specimens.
Collection Inventory
| Title | Box | Folder | ||
| The Harvard Advocate, 1950 Dec, Vol. CXXXIV, No. 3 | k_3 | 2 | ||
|
Chermayeff did the cover illustration and several illustrations inside the magazine, which features poems by Adrienne Rich and Donald Hall, among others. |
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| "Painting by Computer," print of mural design, 1977 | k_OSxxx-1 | 2 | ||
|
According to a 1977 Parsons newsletter, the 7-1/2 foot by 52 foot mural was made "using innovative techniques and equipment in a unique blend of design and technology," and ran along one wall of the new Parsons' lecture hall/theater. The image was produced using a slit scan camera and magnified 24 times on a Gisen Scana mural scanning unit, which reproduced, or "painted," the photograph onto natural cotton fiber with a paper backing. Judith Ellis, a 1974 Parsons graduate, worked with Chermayeff on this project. |
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| Title | Map-case | Folder | ||
| Posters, 1979, 1987 | MC C 1 | 5 | ||
|
Includes a poster for the New York Art Expo '79 at the New York Colisseum (copyright International Art Exposition, Inc., 1979); and the exhibition poster for "Ivan Chermayeff Collages" at the Ingber Gallery (Image: "New Guardian," 1987). |
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