1992 MAINE SUMMER INSTITUTE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTLAND SCHOOL OF ART
Rudolph de Harak [Designer]
Rudolph de Harak [Designer]: 1992 MAINE SUMMER INSTITUTE IN GRAPHIC DESIGN PORTLAND SCHOOL OF ART. Ellsworth, ME: The Borealis Press, 1992. Original impression. 19 x 25.5-inch [48 x 64 cm] trim size image printed via offset lithography on a medium matte sheet. Folded in quarters as issued. SIGNED by Rudolph de Harak. Expected wear to folds, but a very good example.
A 19 x 25.5-inch [48 x 64 cm] poster designed by Rudolph de Harak. The Portland School of Art assembled guests James Cross, Rudolph de Harak and Bruno Monguzzi for the 1992 Maine Summer Institute in Graphic Design. The poster functioned as a promotion as well as a prospectus.
Rudolph de Harak (1924 – 2002) once said about his design method, ''I was always looking for the hidden order, trying to somehow either develop new forms or manipulate existing form.'' The nearly 350 covers he designed throughout the 60's for McGraw-Hill paperbacks, with subjects like philosophy, anthropology, psychology and sociology, offered him a place to test the limits of conceptual art and photography. He used the opportunity to experiment with a variety of approaches inspired by Dada, Abstract Expressionism and Op-Art. His McGraw-Hill paperbacks, especially, had a strong influence on contemporary graphic design.
Not content to work in one medium or genre, Mr. de Harak created exhibitions, including a celebration of American sports for the 1970 Osaka World's Fair. He designed shopping bags for the Met and delivery-truck graphics for The New York Times. He had commissions from the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Park Service, the National Endowment for the Arts and the United States Postal Service.
His spirit of restlessness carried over to his own firm. ''He would build up an office and fire them all, and then he'd start up again,'' the designer Thomas Geismar of Chermayeff & Geismar recalled.
Mr. de Harak taught graphic and exhibition design at Cooper Union for 25 years and was a visiting professor at Yale, Alfred University, Parsons School of Design and Pratt Institute. In 1993 he received a medal for lifetime achievement from the American Institute of Graphic Artists.
“Superficial and stylish graphic designers tend to reduce their syntax to a temporary gospel and spread it everywhere on everything. Good design solutions, however, are probably timeless.” — Bruno Monguzzi
Bruno Monguzzi (Swiss, b. 1941) studied Graphic Design in Geneva, then Typography, Photography and Gestalt Psychology in London.
“I left for London where I selected a few courses: Romek Marber’s at St Martin’s, Dennis Bailey’s at Central, photography at the London School of Printing. Thanks to Ken Briggs, whom I had also met at St Martin’s and who tried to answer my many questions, I discovered Gestalt psychology and became very involved in the study of visual perception. It is at that point, in 1961, that I started to believe in graphic design as a problem-solving profession rather than a problem-making one and that I slowly began to push away my hidden dream to became another Werner Bischof. It was also at the time that I began to understand and to love the American school: Gene Federico, Herb Lubalin, Lou Dorfsman, Lou Danziger, Charles and Ray Eames.”
“In the second issue of Neue Grafik I discovered the Milanese pioneers – Studio Boggeri, Max Huber, Franco Grignani – and I decided to fly to Milan to meet Antonio Boggeri. I still remember the tiny elevator of 3 Piazza Duse. On the slow, shaky journey up to the sixth floor I felt uneasy. And I felt uneasy for the following two years, having fallen in love with the man, his ideas, the designs of Aldo Calabresi and the office with the balcony overlooking the Giardini. After a few weeks of desperate struggle to be good enough to stay there, I was called for. Lifting his lean, long hands – the most beautiful hands I have ever seen – Boggeri shared with me his theory about the spider’s web. Like the spider’s web, he said, Swiss graphic design was perfect, but often of a useless perfection. The web, he stated, was only useful when harmed by the entangled fly. It was then that my vocabulary began to increase. And it was then that my use of type and pictures began to grow towards more expressive solutions.”
Monguzzi started as an assistant at Studio Boggeri in 1961, became Antonio Boggeri’s son-law in 1974, and curated and designed the Studio Boggeri retrospective at the Milan Triennale in 1981.
In 1971, Monguzzi received the Bodoni prize for his contribution to Italian graphic design and he became a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale in 1979. In 1983, in association with Visuel Design Jean Widmer, he won the competition for the signage system and identity for the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.
Monguzzi was Art Consultant for Abitare magazine from 1986 to 1991. He was the sole designer for Museo Cantonale d’Arte, Lugano from 1987 to 2004. He lives and works in Meride, Switzerland.
All Monguzzi quotes first published in Eye no. 1 vol. 1, 1990.