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Saving Lou Dorfsman's Wall: A Question of Pace
BY
Jim Schachterle
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by Jim Schachterle
It’s an uncontested fact; the world is moving at an astonishing pace, and everyday, it moves a little bit faster. Within the course of an hour, the average designer will glance at beautiful illustrations, peruse expertly choreographed layouts and scan remarkable typefaces.
A trip to a local Barnes & Noble or Borders results in stacks of books, ripe with design inspiration. From one perspective, this seemingly bottomless well of inspiration is an unparalleled opportunity. We can dip our mind into the well at any time and draw a long, cool drink of inspiration. From another perspective, it is like filling a drinking glass with a waterfall.
In any situation, there is always a yin and yang, and as the world moves faster and faster, our ability to step back and recognize the big picture is becoming more important. As the saying goes, you must recognize the forest for the trees. As a young designer, I have been fortunate enough to have a few defining moments to which I can look; a few moments that were the equivalent of an epiphany in my development. One of these moments occurred recently. I met a former instructor for coffee and agreed to join a project.
It seemed simple enough at the time. An Atlanta-based not-for-profit, The Center for Design Study, needed a web site. I was going to help with the web site’s strategy; I was going to make sure that the web site made sense. Yet, as I learned more about the not-for-profit and its mission, the task became more difficult. You see, as its first project, the not-for-profit had decided to save a design icon.
The icon in question was the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, the wall from the CBS cafeteria that was conceived and designed by Lou Dorfsman, the legendary art director. If you are not familiar with the work of Dorfsman you should be. His wit and skill defined a generation of graphic designers, and while at CBS, he was responsible for crafting every aspect of the broadcast giant’s persona – from its award winning advertising to its impeccable identity.
Though many designers are aware of its existence, few understand the magnitude of the achievement that the Gastrotypographicalassemblage represents. Commonly referred to as “the wall,” it is enormous—33 feet in length and 8 feet in height—give or take a few inches. The wall is an elegantly designed mixture of food-related words and objects, a perfectly orchestrated collage of appetite. You have undoubtedly seen similar pieces that were created with vinyl letters, but the Gastrotypographicalassemblage was the first of its kind, the icon to which others owe their very existence.
Completed during the mid-1960s, the wall occupied the CBS building that was designed by Eero Saarinen. Lou Dorfsman was the Director of Design for CBS, Inc. at the time, and after attending a meeting about the interior design of the new building’s cafeteria, Dorfsman, true to form, proposed a radical idea. He envisioned a wall of solid type, similar to a typesetters tray turned on its side. He quickly created a series of sketches and showed them to Dr. Frank Stanton, the President of CBS, who approved the project and gave Dorfsman a license to design.
Dorfsman created the initial comps and commissioned the creation of the first panel. Once the panel was completed, Dorfsman enlisted his lifetime friend Herb Lubalin, the legendary designer and typographer, to work on the remaining panels. Tom Carnase meticulously hand-lettered the final comps, and a team of carpenters and sculptors set to work. Each letter was hand-milled out of thick pine. In addition to words, the Gastrotypographicalassemblage is dotted with three-dimensional food and sculptures. Upon its completion, Dr. Frank Stanton said of the Gastrotypographicalassemblage: “The wall never ceases to excite the imagination. To me, it represents one of the most arresting design creations to be seen anywhere."
And, for 20 years after its completion, the wall inspired all who saw it. It graced the CBS cafeteria, and like so many pieces of design, fulfilled its intended purpose. Yet, the wall’s future was called into question during the late 1980’s after a change in leadership. The wall was unceremoniously removed from the cafeteria, and save a call from a building superintendent, Richard Spiro, the wall would have been lost forever.
It’s hard to believe. A remarkable icon of design was almost destroyed. Like so many images that cross our screen, we might have simply missed it. It might have faded from our combined conscious, only available in some distant digital archive or, worse yet, in a book with a questionable future. As the pace of the world increases, we have to make time for the history that has informed the present and will undoubtedly define our future. This isn’t only a problem in the field of design; yet, it might be more poignant since the cataloging of design history is a relatively recent occurrence. For too long, the history of design was simply a footnote in an art history textbook.
The Gastrotypographicalassemblage is a seminal work, a reflection of one designer’s legendary genius, and it is within our power to restore it to its original glory, making it available to future generations, who will be educated and inspired by this incredible piece of our shared history.
To support the restoration of the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, please make a donation to The Center for Design Study.
JIM SCHACHTERLE
Graphic Designer
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Read ARTICLES on THE DRIVER SPEAKS
The Graphic Manipulator
Graphic Intervention [Part One]
Graphic intervention [Last Part]
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© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.
It’s an uncontested fact; the world is moving at an astonishing pace, and everyday, it moves a little bit faster. Within the course of an hour, the average designer will glance at beautiful illustrations, peruse expertly choreographed layouts and scan remarkable typefaces.
A trip to a local Barnes & Noble or Borders results in stacks of books, ripe with design inspiration. From one perspective, this seemingly bottomless well of inspiration is an unparalleled opportunity. We can dip our mind into the well at any time and draw a long, cool drink of inspiration. From another perspective, it is like filling a drinking glass with a waterfall.
In any situation, there is always a yin and yang, and as the world moves faster and faster, our ability to step back and recognize the big picture is becoming more important. As the saying goes, you must recognize the forest for the trees. As a young designer, I have been fortunate enough to have a few defining moments to which I can look; a few moments that were the equivalent of an epiphany in my development. One of these moments occurred recently. I met a former instructor for coffee and agreed to join a project.
It seemed simple enough at the time. An Atlanta-based not-for-profit, The Center for Design Study, needed a web site. I was going to help with the web site’s strategy; I was going to make sure that the web site made sense. Yet, as I learned more about the not-for-profit and its mission, the task became more difficult. You see, as its first project, the not-for-profit had decided to save a design icon.
The icon in question was the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, the wall from the CBS cafeteria that was conceived and designed by Lou Dorfsman, the legendary art director. If you are not familiar with the work of Dorfsman you should be. His wit and skill defined a generation of graphic designers, and while at CBS, he was responsible for crafting every aspect of the broadcast giant’s persona – from its award winning advertising to its impeccable identity.
Though many designers are aware of its existence, few understand the magnitude of the achievement that the Gastrotypographicalassemblage represents. Commonly referred to as “the wall,” it is enormous—33 feet in length and 8 feet in height—give or take a few inches. The wall is an elegantly designed mixture of food-related words and objects, a perfectly orchestrated collage of appetite. You have undoubtedly seen similar pieces that were created with vinyl letters, but the Gastrotypographicalassemblage was the first of its kind, the icon to which others owe their very existence.
Completed during the mid-1960s, the wall occupied the CBS building that was designed by Eero Saarinen. Lou Dorfsman was the Director of Design for CBS, Inc. at the time, and after attending a meeting about the interior design of the new building’s cafeteria, Dorfsman, true to form, proposed a radical idea. He envisioned a wall of solid type, similar to a typesetters tray turned on its side. He quickly created a series of sketches and showed them to Dr. Frank Stanton, the President of CBS, who approved the project and gave Dorfsman a license to design.
Dorfsman created the initial comps and commissioned the creation of the first panel. Once the panel was completed, Dorfsman enlisted his lifetime friend Herb Lubalin, the legendary designer and typographer, to work on the remaining panels. Tom Carnase meticulously hand-lettered the final comps, and a team of carpenters and sculptors set to work. Each letter was hand-milled out of thick pine. In addition to words, the Gastrotypographicalassemblage is dotted with three-dimensional food and sculptures. Upon its completion, Dr. Frank Stanton said of the Gastrotypographicalassemblage: “The wall never ceases to excite the imagination. To me, it represents one of the most arresting design creations to be seen anywhere."
And, for 20 years after its completion, the wall inspired all who saw it. It graced the CBS cafeteria, and like so many pieces of design, fulfilled its intended purpose. Yet, the wall’s future was called into question during the late 1980’s after a change in leadership. The wall was unceremoniously removed from the cafeteria, and save a call from a building superintendent, Richard Spiro, the wall would have been lost forever.
It’s hard to believe. A remarkable icon of design was almost destroyed. Like so many images that cross our screen, we might have simply missed it. It might have faded from our combined conscious, only available in some distant digital archive or, worse yet, in a book with a questionable future. As the pace of the world increases, we have to make time for the history that has informed the present and will undoubtedly define our future. This isn’t only a problem in the field of design; yet, it might be more poignant since the cataloging of design history is a relatively recent occurrence. For too long, the history of design was simply a footnote in an art history textbook.
The Gastrotypographicalassemblage is a seminal work, a reflection of one designer’s legendary genius, and it is within our power to restore it to its original glory, making it available to future generations, who will be educated and inspired by this incredible piece of our shared history.
To support the restoration of the Gastrotypographicalassemblage, please make a donation to The Center for Design Study.
JIM SCHACHTERLE
Graphic Designer
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| Jim Schachterle believes that design is "an awesome mind game", and one day, he hopes that someone will give him some the license to design something cool.
Click on his picture to read more about him. | |
| Editorial / Creative US Contributor |
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Read ARTICLES on THE DRIVER SPEAKS
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© 2003 - 2008 by TAXI Design Network. All rights reserved.