FRESH DIALOGUE 1986
[M&Co/AIGA] Tibor Kalman et al. [Designers]
[M&Co/AIGA] Tibor Kalman et al. [Designers]: FRESH DIALOGUE 1986. New York: American Institute of Graphic Arts New York, 1986. Original edition [600 copies]. Printed folder with 15 xerography sheets [as issued]. A fine, fresh and complete set of this groundbreaking AIGA symposium keepsake.
8.75 x 10.75 folder with 15 xerox sheets for the AIGA Fresh Dialogue 1986. This set was produced in an edition of 600 copies by M&Co. for the session on Wednesday, June 4, 1986 at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Includes sheets designed by Dave and Jane [Doublespace], Tibor Kalman, Chris Austopchuk, Tom Strong, Alexander Isley, Stephen Doyle, Dan Friedman, Jo Bonney, Michael Beirut, Bill Bonnell, Lauretta Jones & David Biedny, and Carol Bokuniewicz.
“M&Co’s early “anti-design” manifesto was articulated at an American Institute of Graphic Arts New York symposium in 1986. M&Co assembled ten speakers and a set of publicity materials that resembled the kind of print job undertaken in a back-alley shop of a forgotten small town for a local street fair. Typography was badly spaced, half-heartedly center-stacked and printed on the kind of bright orange leatherette card used for high school yearbooks. Attendees were welcomed to the auditorium by a Macintosh computer (shortly before the machine took over the profession) and handed a folder containing a statement of intent designed by each of the speakers.
“The school of undesign actually developed out of Kalman and Bokuniewicz’s lack of experience and inability to compete with the slick production standards of the day. Since they were unable to hide behind dazzling colors and the deft subtleties of layering varnish on coated stock, they were forced to resort to funny ideas. over time, as M&Co became more confident, the defensive tactic evolved into a stance.” — Peter Hall [Editor]: TIBOR KALMAN PERVERSE OPTIMIST. London: Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1998, p. 52.
“As long as we could break the rules, it interested us more than making beautiful work. We were on the outside of graphic design. It was a very very staid time, with a lot or corporate and cute and friendly work, very precious, very designy and not surprising or startling. It was tempting to shake it up.” —Carol Bokuniewicz, ibid
This AIGA set is pretty much exactly what you would expect from M&Co. Throughout his 30-year career, Tibo Kalman brought his restless intellectual curiosity and subversive wit to everything he worked on -- from album covers for the Talking Heads to the redevelopment of Times Square. Kalman incorporated visual elements other designers had never associated with successful design, and used his work to promote his radical politics. The influence of his experiments in typography and images can be seen everywhere, from music videos to the design of magazines such as Wired and Ray Gun.
From Matthew Haber’s 1999 Obituary notice: “ [Tibor] Kalman was best known for the groundbreaking work he created with his New York design firm, M&Co, and his brief yet influential editorship of Colors magazine. Throughout his 30-year career, Kalman brought his restless intellectual curiosity and subversive wit to everything he worked on -- from album covers for the Talking Heads to the redevelopment of Times Square. Kalman incorporated visual elements other designers had never associated with successful design, and used his work to promote his radical politics. The influence of his experiments in typography and images can be seen everywhere, from music videos to the design of magazines such as Wired and Ray Gun.”
”... Born in Budapest in 1949, Kalman and his parents were forced to flee the Soviet invasion in 1956. They settled in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., when he was 8. Kalman was ostracized in elementary school until he learned to speak English. “
”Kalman parlayed his childhood isolation into some of his most successful design innovations. “He was keenly passionate about things of the American vernacular because he wasn’t American,” Chee Pearlman, editor of I.D. magazine, remarked shortly after Kalman’s funeral. “In that sense, he taught the whole profession to look at things that they may not have seen as closely or taken as seriously.”
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