Tibor Kalman

tibor kalman :: june 1998

Find the cracks in the wall

Later: Saturday, 10 May, 2008

That link is dead

But here is Wikepedia so I can recall what the hell that was about.

tibor kalman

Salon Obituary

Kalman combined his desire to break new ground visually with a passionate commitment to social causes. From his days as an undergraduate at New York University, where he was a member of Students for a Democratic Society (he left school to support the Communists in Cuba for a period), Kalman’s radical politics and his radical designs were inextricably linked. “I use contrary-ism in every part of my life. In design … I’m always trying to turn things upside down and see if they look any better,” he told Charlie Rose in a December 1998 interview.

Even in the last stages of his illness, Kalman continued to push his artist-as-agent-of-change agenda. Pearlman recalled visiting Kalman in the hospital and being subjected to a heartfelt tirade about how the American Institute of Graphic Artists should require members to do charitable work. “He had a huge sense of purpose with everything he did: It kept him alive and it’s also what drove people crazy about him,” Pearlman said.

This item looks good

Tibor Kalman: Provocateur

In the mid-1980s two names changed graphic design: Macintosh and Tibor. The former needs no introduction. Nor, with various books and articles by and about him, does the latter. Tibor Kalman, who died on May 2, 1999, after a long, courageous battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, was one of the few graphic designers whose accomplishments were legend within the field and widely known outside as well. Tibor may not be as influential on the daily practice of graphic design as the Mac, but his sway over how designers think — indeed, how they define their roles in culture and society — is indisputable. For a decade he was the design profession’s moral compass and its most fervent provocateur.