1st Draft of Paper

Michael Kamens
4/14/09

Louis Dorfsman Life as a Graphic Designer

Louis “Lou” Dorfsman was a renowned graphic designer. His legacy includes overseeing almost every aspect of the advertising and corporate identity for the Columbia broadcasting system (CBS). He passed away on October 22, 2008 and his work speaks for itself. His work, personal life and creative background will be discussed and hopefully inform just how essential Lou Dorfsman was to the field of graphic design.
He was born in 1918 on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Even though he was a n American his parents were immigrants from Poland. Originally Dorfman wanted to attend New York University and study science. Unfortunately his parents were unable to afford the tuition. He went to Cooper Union because the tuition was free and there were plenty of art and design courses; he graduated in 1939. This was the best thing that could of happened because had he attended NYU he could possibly not have discovered graphic design.
Upon graduation some of his design jobs included making displays for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair. He served in the United States Army during WWII where he used his design skills. The crux of his service to graphic design was his work at CBS.
He joined CBS as an art director for its radio networks. It was clear from the companies hiring decisions that Frank Stanton, the CBS President at the time, understood that sophisticated designs could lead to better business for the company. He also hired William Golden as the overall art director in 1951. He was the one who designed the now famous CBS eye. This is now one of the most recognizable logos in graphic design and the world. According to the New York Times, “Mr. Dorfsman not only extended Golden’s aesthetic by combining conceptual clarity and provocative visual presentation, but developed his own signature style of graphic design. Unlike so many product advertisements created by Madison Avenue, which in the 1940s and ‘50’ were visually mundane and text heavy, Mr. Dorfsman’s designs featured clear typography, simple slogans and smart illustration.”. Even with someone ahead of him professionally, Dorfsman was still recognized as someone special within the industry.
Lou Dorfsman professional position quickly arose. He became more powerful in graphic design and became a creative staple for CBS. William Golden died suddenly in 1959, which led to Lou Dorfsman being named creative director of CBS television. 1964 he became the director of design for the entire Columbia Broadcasting system. Later on his title was senior vice president and creative director for marketing communications and design. The New York Times makes it clear that he maintained tight creative control. This ensured design continuity for the CBS logo. George lois was someone who worked at CBS and considered Lou Dorfsman to be his mentor. He says, “He was the kingpin of the New York School of Design, a pluperfect, fearless, uncompromising perfectionist, and a father of corporate image in the world…”.
Lou Dorfsman is responsible for many designs. One of his first advertisements was the full page newspaper ad for “Of Black America”. This was the first network series on black history and showed a black man in black and white. Half of his face was painted with the stars and stripes of the United States flag with his eyes focused intently on the viewer. Not only was Dorfsman a talented designer but he was also a pioneer for race relations in the design community. When President Kennedy was shot the headline of the Newspaper ad read, “This is the bullet that hit both President Kennedy and Governor Connally. Or did it?” The picture that was ultimately used in the full page ad was an extreme close up of a hand holding a bullet. This was clearly the thinking of Dorfsman and is further proof of how talented he was. He also was considered the standard in broadcast advertising. When the first moon landing occurred, a special book was proposed. Dorfsman came up with a design for the cover that was supposed to look and feel like the moon’s surface. He designed sets for Walter Cronkite’s evening show and the “CBS Morning News”.
One of the most famous buildings in broadcasting was designed by the architect Euro Saarinen, but every detail of the graphics was overseen by Dorfsman. The building’s cafeteria was a 35 feet wide by 8 ½ feet tall, of hand mille wood type that wed antique letterforms to modern aesthetics.
Like all great things, they must unfortunately come to and end. He stayed with CBS until Laurence Tisch assumed control of the company in the mid 1980’s and instituted cost cutting programs. However when Dorfsman left the company in 1991, William S Paley who was the former chairman of CBS, offered the job of creative director for the Museum of Broadcasting, which is now the world known, “Paley Center for Media”. It is interesting that someone whose niche was graphic design worked heavily in television. A book (Dorfsman and CBS) was released documenting his life and a review of it from the New York Times said, “Leafing through this abundantly illustrated book, one is struck by the fact that television nurtured one of print’s most innovative graphic designers”.
Lou Dorfsman received many accolades over his life. He was inducted into the Art Directors Hall of Fame. He received the prestigious American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for Lifetime Achievement. He was someone who had a large family; a wife, three children and one grandchild.
Every industry has their leaders. Film has Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorcese. Literature has Shakespeare. It is clear that after examining the life of Lou Dorfsman is a leader of the graphic design industry. He was a mentor, a pioneer and a true talent. His legacy can be seen in many logos and designs and his talent will never be forgotten.

Notes for 3/19/09

2nd Part of Assignment


-Pick a part of the picture you want to recede in interest.
-Make background less important.
-Depth of Field- When a background is less important its called limited depth of field.

-Select area you want to work on.
-use pen tool and make path around area.

-Filter>blur-gausian blur.
-Use dodge tool to lighten up the blurred area.

Zone 8-ABS black
Zone 1-ABS White


*General rule about images(video, commercial, magazines)
We want detail in the shadows. Detail in the highlights. We want separation of the tones in the mid tones.

Ian Wheeler Lecture

Michael Kamens

3/19/09

Ian Wheeler Lecture

Ian Wheeler is a young man who is currently successful in the music and design world. Hearing him talk about his rise from no money to success is fascinating and encouraging as someone who is about to graduate and look for employment.

He said that Partisan Records started as a record label. He became the manager through indie outlaw. He owns two companies and owns another as well. During his first two years with his company he mailed packages out to people and other companies because marketing sends out 10-15,000 packages.

One of his popular designs was a vinyl cover that had three guys on the beach with two girls holding machine guns. Some people at the time thought it was bad, but most thought it was good and interesting. Either way it was an eye catcher which was on of the key reasons it came though. He said one of the key reasons it sold was because it gave off the feeling of being, “so good its right”. He said that he gets paid $6 for every vinyl he sells and his band gets $3. He later discussed the difficulty of selling digital booklets because deciding what the content is going to be is tough. His bands music has been in some movies and t.v. such as the hit show, “Grey’s Anatomy”.

A big portion of his lecture was instructing students on what to do, to succeed in the entertainment industry. He stressed how important it was to intern. He also made it clear how important it is to go to parties and network; form relationships. He said that most of the time all you need is information from other people in terms of who is hiring for what job and to get the best information is to start up conversations and form relationships with them.

Listening to what Ian said was very eye opening. It was great to hear someone who is in the entertainment industry talk about how successful he is, it gives me hope that I could do the same. He doesn’t make it sound easy or simple, just realistic. What he says you have to do can be hard, but definitely not impossible.

New Simpsons Opening

The long running television sitcom, "The Simpsons" have redesigned their opening sequence that has been the same for nearly twenty years. The reason behind this is because now the show will be broadcast in HD(high definition. The basic premise of the opening is the same, Bart is in trouble and is writing on the blackboard, Homer leaves the nuclear plant with some radioactive material, Lisa plays her saxophone as she leaves music class, Marge goes shopping with Maggie, and the family all comes together on their couch at the end. However the details of each act is different, there are more characters added to the background and some characters are doing different thnings in this sequence then they did to the old one. Personally I feel the change is unnecessary. It is not that the new sequence is entertaining or well done. But there was nothing wrong with the old sequence. It went hand in hand with the show. It was somthing synominous with the show. Even though this was an unnecessary change, it could have been worse; they could of changed the nature of the characters themselves. It is still related to the humorous nature of the show.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZGz1Ajg7QU