The Greatest Designers of our Age #8: Lou Dorfsman
The Class Act
Lou Dorfsman was an animal. A giant. A monster. A colossus of Design. His work is completely unique and his body of work is unparalleled in the history of design. Unlike many designers, who crossed disciplines and designed outside of their prime focus of graphic design, like The Great Dieter Rams, Dorfsman stayed focused purely on graphic design – and no wonder – he had a television channel to run. And we are all the better off for it. Dorfsman’s work, is so monumentally brilliant, it’s hard to find words to describe how sensationally crucial his work was.
Whilst some designers relied on bombast and shock to grab the public’s attention, Dorfsman – always the gentleman – simply designed masterpieces. Everything he touched turned to gold, and in his repertoire is neither a dud or a misfire. His consistently brilliant work reshaped the televisual landscape and his work left a lasting legacy on every single designer in North America and beyond. His design work was at the vanguard during the glorious visual revolution of the 60’s and 70’s, with his stunning work shaping advertising and marketing forever.
I was lucky enough to find Lou’s work early on in my design career, rummaging through what I realised latterly was a very well-stocked University Library. At the same time I found Saul Bass, Paul Rand and George Louis, and their collective work helped me fall in love with advertising and design forever. What was it about the 60’s? Damn. Everything was so fucking fabulous. Perhaps it was an era before photoshop came alone and ruined everything. Perhaps there was an innocence to it all. Maybe people just loved helvetica more then. You don’t see it anywhere anymore! Unless it microscopic on someone’s terms and conditions. Bloody tragic.
Once I had managed to get my hands onto Lou’s epic tome “Dorfsman and CBS”, (Columbia Broadcasting System) there was no going back. The genie was out the bottle. The ship had sailed. I had seen Nirvana. This is what design was. This is what Design Is.
Before Lou passed, I managed to reach out to him via email. This was around ’95, whilst I was a design student. Sadly, the email longer exists, due to many inbox implosions over the last 2 decades. It’s a great pleasure to me, knowing that it’s possible to talk to, and learn from these great designers who changed the world. For me, people like Lou Dorfsman are the real celebrities, changing the world with their talent, passion and endless creativity. When a designer lives their passion everyday for more than 40 years (like Lou did at CBS) the impact they leave on the company and their environment, not to mention the design landscape, is monumental.
As part of Lou’s 40 years tenure at CBS, he created CBS Didot. This new typeface, (a variation on the classic font,) was used across all of CBS literature and advertising. It was part of Lou’s far reaching evolution of the CBS brand to bring a cohesive visual language across the company.
Early work
Dorfsman was born on the lower east side of Manhattan, to Jewish immigrants from Poland. His original idea upon graduating high school was to study bacteriology at the University of New York. Why this was the case, I guess we’ll never know. It seems like a far cry from corporate branding. We can only thank god he couldn’t afford the tuition – it was 1935 and height of The Great Depression. Lou ended up at the Cooper Union – an up and coming design school based in New York City – where he won a 4 year scholarship. Not much is known about Lou’s time at the Cooper Union, but was can assume it was an interesting and productive time for him, as he quickly lost interest bacteriology and put together enough of a portfolio on graduation to go and out claim a great job at CBS, under the mentorship of the great Bill Golden. Lou met his future wife at the school, and also met his future creative partner – Herb Lubalin.
In 1943 at the start of WW2, Lou was drafted in the U.S army. Obviously realising that Lou would be more productive with a paint brush than a gun, Lou was placed in the Public Relations unit in Texas, to dream up propaganda for the cause. Whilst there, Lou entered and won 1st and 2nd prizes for his entries into a national Army Poster of the Year competition! Quite an auspicious start for Lou into the world of advertising – the boy had talent. After a year in the army, Lou was introduced to CBS after finding an “Art Directors Club” manual, where the countries hottest creative talents were showcased. It was here that Lou first set eyes on the pioneering design work by Bill Golden was creating for CBS in New York. From this point onwards, Lou was determined to work for CBS. On his release from the army in 1946, Lou applied for a staff designer role at CBS – and was accepted.
In one of those happy moments of coincidence, the timing of Lou’s arrival at CBS in 1946 was particularly good. Golden and Lou worked closely together for more than 10 years, where under guidance of Golden, Dorfsman developed his design skills and understanding of how large corporations worked. During that initial 10 years at CBS, Dorfsman developed his own unique style, evolving Goldman’s initial, brilliant work. During the 40’s and 50’s, much of Madison Avenue’s advertising work was relatively bland – with black and white images and very copy heavy. Lou revolutionised the companies marketing approach – now called “Branding” and designed stunning, clever graphics that established CBS as a pinnacle of excellence, in television production and visual design.
In the early years of Lou’s career at CBS, the company was split into separate divisions – Radio and Television. Golden took control of the glamourous exciting world of Television, and Lou was given the slightly less salubrious work of radio promotion. Undeterred, Lou worked dilligently to produce wonderful work for the division, creative, brilliant and always clever. It was this work that set him on his way to a long and celebrated career at CBS, and eventually assume complete creative control.
One of my absolute favourite pieces of Lou’s work. Thanks to Lou’s dedication to his art, CBS produced many works of brilliance that otherwise, would never have happened. Lou’s suggestion to create this beautiful book to celebrate the touchdown of American astronauts on the moon, on 7/20/69, resulted in a timeless classic. Incredibly modern, even today, Lou’s unique style is punctuated throughout the book, with grand type and over the top typographical gestures. Particularly brilliant in the blind-embossed dust cover, with the asteroid-indents all over the book, and a clever mini-image of Neil Armstrong on the moon’s surface. It’s so beautifully printed, you’d think you’d have a piece of the moon in your hands. The work of a design genius.
lou_dorfsman_17.webp139.19 KB It gets even better inside. Check out that type! The font that just won’t quit. Lou just didn’t give a shit about typographic rules. Massive type? Check. Almost tiny illegible body copy underneath? Check. Does it look amazing?
After 13 years of working under Golden, who himself was a passionately driven designer and professional, in 1959 Golden sadly and suddenly passed away at the young age of 48. By this time though, Lou had learned enough from his design master and was ready to take over when offered the illustrious position of Creative Director for CBS. He was 41 years old – a good age to be at the top of your game. Lou essentially spent his whole creative career at CBS, and only 5 yeara later, thanks to his incredible design talent and exceptional work ethic – was given the position of Director of Design for all of CBS. This new positioin gave Lou control over a huge range of design responsibilites – something he threw himself into with his usual energy and style.
Lou designed not only press advertising for CBS through his career, but almost everything imaginable related to television. He designed Walter Kronkite’s newsroom, annual reports, internal stationery and even the internal signage at the new Eero SaarinenHQ in New York . (He Had quite the battle with the NY Fire Department about which typface to use on fire exit doors internally. The fire brigade lost – CBS didot stayed.) Lou’s work touched every aspect of the business, as he developed and maintained one cohesive and consistent visual tone for the coporation. Years ahead of his time in every sense.
Another of my favourite Dorfsman projects is his beautiful 12″ x 12″ photography book “Field and Vision”. Lou was never one to sit around waiting for his clients in CBS to come up with earth-shattering ideas. He would have been waiting a long time. In a lesson to all young designers out there, Lou was eternally optimistic and pro-active when it came to marketing and promotions, dreaming up new ideas constantly. In 1962, whilst out taking photographs at an NFL game to promote a game for CBS’s local coverage, Lou realised there was an opportunity to promote something else – the technological feat that CBS achieved every sunday – transmitting live, to the nation, 7 football games simultaneously. On November 4, 1962, CBS played live 7 games, so Lou, along with several commissioned photographers went out a took pictures at all 7 games. The result was this gorgeous 132 page collectors item book, helping to promote the NFL, and emphasised the bond between CBS and the NRL – so saying that this edition even consolidated and helped CBS win more long-term contract for live NRL games.
I love everything about the book, but especially the photography. I’m not sure why or how – perhaps it was the style of the day – but photographs from the sixties have a special unique quality to them. The contrast, is so intense, and yes loses none of its subtlety. Those dark blacks help all the images seem so powerful. Maybe it was the film they used back then – or a style of printing, or even just the taste of the day, what people expected prints to look like. Whatever it was, when couple with Lou’s inimitable style of typography, the book remains a masterpiece.
lou_dorfsman_09_sm.webp60.74 KB Just great design. Putting big blocks of colour up against black and white photography is always great – but what to do with that block of colour? Some solid Helvetica bold in white, ranged right (interesting) with some black serif font body copy does the job.
It would have taken some time and smart use of the copy, but all the type sits just perfectly under this glorious image of Liz in all her glory. Classic.
Few designers of the day, especially those who’s work was seen by so many, dared to make political statements through their design work. Lou was not afraid though, to make powerful statements with his work even if it meant sparking controversy. I’ve seen this piece on the internet net often, but no commentators have made note of the designs powerful message. It’s powerful, tragic and beautiful all at the same time. The U.S flag over the mans face, being at once a symbol of unity, perhaps even a branding of sorts – with the flag cleverly turned onto its side, with the stripes coming to represent the bars of a jail, and the detainee sadly looking out from his incarceration.
Lou’s “Gift to the World”. His Magnum Opus
There is a great story behind Lou’s “Magnum Opus” as he called it, The Gastrotypograhicalassemblage. The opportunity arose when the new “Black Rock” HQ was completed in 1964, designed by the controversial Finnish architect, Eero Saarinen. The CBS execs wanted some kind of beautiful decoration to adorn the wall of the new cafeteria at the HQ, and Lou had the perfect idea.
On being briefed by the CBS top brass, Lou explains their sentiments: “Its unique because it’s a uniquely conceived and designed building. We want first class work done done around this company, I mean, the absolute best.” So Lou set about creating the best piece of modern typography in existence.
Together with Herb Lubalin and type master Tom Carnese, Lou created what was to be a modern masterpiece. After a year of designing planning and painstaking hand-crafting of the lettering and decoration, in 1965 the display was finally complete. This beautiful display, a creative relief sculpture designed as a tribute to celebrate the CBS restaurants culinary (and typographical) excellence, was an instant smash hit in the office and was 4o feet of pure creative genius. The amount of work the designers and manufacturers of the actual physical type must have put in this work of art is really quite staggering – a real labour of love. Many of the fonts on the wall are in fact not “fonts” per se, simply beautiful letters that the three designers dreamt up. We’re not sure today, who to allocate all the credit too, but I expect Herb and Tom created the majority of the calligraphy and type work, as they were the specialists in the field. I imagine Lou to be more of an Art Director in this particular piece. I may be wrong..happy to be updated on this! There was also a forth person involved in the creation of this masterpiece, a young designer called Nick Fasiano, who hand carved all the “life forms” on the wall: the hands, feet etc. Says Nick of Lou: “Tough. He was tough. But the toughness was always in the pursuit of excellence.”
More on Nick later…
And so, the Gastrotypographicalassemblage remained on the wall of the cafeteria for 20 years, fascinating and inspiring customers and employees alike. But then, things started to change. The 80’s were to blame of course, as they were for so many tragedies in taste for mankind. I should know, I was there. In 1986, Laurence Tisch took over as CEO of CBS, and began a relentless period of cost cutting. Alas, nothing was safe and with Tisch being the consummate dullard and philistine, ordered the typographical masterpiece be cast into the dumpster. Alarmed by this tragic turn of events, our dear friend Nick Fasiano came to the rescue. With the assemblage lying, broken up and sitting in a dumpster waiting for removal, Lou called Fasiano, who raced down the dumpster with a rented truck, picked up all the panels and transferred them to his home basement – where it lay there for more than 23 years. Staggering, really. Over the period the Assemblage deteriorated, with the 1960’s adhesives falling apart, paint falling off and the typographical characters rotting – as they were made of wood – many beyond repair.
In 2001, The Center for Design Study in Atlanta, agreed with Fasiano to take on the responsibility to fund funding for a complete restoration. “The wall is a window to the past that should be built up, not torn down,” wrote preservation advocate Richard Anwyl in the AIGA Voice. The fact that Fasiano and so many other good-natured souls respected and admired the wall so much, shows us how special this piece of art was. After this agreement to find funding for the Assemblage, Fasiano began working in earnest to restore all the parts of the wall. In was a long arduous process, where Fasiano had to rework a huge percentage of the original pieces, carefully re-creating many letters and forms. Every single letter had to be stripped, sanded repaired and painted again. An interesting interview with Stephan Hengst, is available here, with fascinating insights and images of Fasiano creating so beautiful wooden sculptures of the Assemblage.
During a conversation in 2008 in Fasiano and his good friend Nick Valenti (Chairmen Emeritus of The Culinary Institute of America) were discussing the Assemblage and thoughts began to distill on where the new home of the Assemblage should be. “The Culinary Institute of America” seemed like a most appropriate new place of residency. After many discussions, it was decided that the Institute’s new building under construction would be the perfect new home for Lou’s masterwork. They agreed that the piece would be under indefinite loan to Valenti’s institute.
After much effort, in 2012 the Gastrotypographicalassemblage was rehung on the walls of the Institute in all its glory. You can watch a fascinating video here, discussing its rennovation. You can hear Fasiano’s passion and joy in his words as he speaks about the wonderful work. What an amazing guy! If you can bear crappy jazz that is f*ing too loud, there’s also an interesting video from the Kemistry Gallery in NY here.
Incredibly, you can own a reproduced piece of the wall, direct from Fasiano himself. Find it here.
I think I’ll maybe head over to NY soon. Planning on going to see George Louis, so why not go see two heroes at once?
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Amen, Lou. And in a nutshell, Lou captures the essence of his 40 years at CBS, and why his work remains a collection of some of the finest designs modern times have had the privilege to witness.
At Zenn, we firmly believe this. I can thoroughly recommend his wonderful book for those discerning viewers wishing to lear more about how to create wonderful, clever works of art and the man behind those creations. You can also watch this great video with Lou also – discussing many things, including the creations of Bill Golden’s CBS eye logo.
