Deborah Sussman

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Deborah Sussman
Sussman in 2013
Born
Deborah Evelyn Sussman

May 26, 1931
Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
DiedAugust 19, 2014(2014-08-19) (aged 83)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
NationalityUnited States
EducationDoctorate of Humane Letters at Bard College (1998)

Institute of Design, Chicago (1950-1959)
Hochschule für Gestaltung, Ulm, Germany (1957-1958)
BFA, visual arts and acting Bard College, (1948-1950)

Black Mountain College (Summer 1948)
Known forEnvironmental graphic design
Notable work1984 Summer Olympics
AwardsAIGA medal (2004)

Deborah Evelyn Sussman (May 26, 1931 – August 19, 2014) was an American designer and a pioneer in the field of environmental graphic design.[1][2] Her work incorporated graphic design into architectural and public spaces.

Early life and education

Deborah Sussman was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 26, 1931.[3] Her father was a skilled commercial artist.

Sussman took classes at the Art Students League and attended summer school at Black Mountain College in 1952. She studied acting and painting at Bard College in New York. In 1951 [4]she attended the Institute of Design in Chicago where she studied graphic design.[3] She later went on to earn a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Bard College in 1998.[5]

Career

Sussman's career started in the offices of Charles and Ray Eames, where she worked as an office designer beginning around 1953. She spent about 10 years with the Eameses and became art director for the office, designing print materials, museum exhibits, films, and showrooms for furniture.[3] She designed instructions for the card construction game House of Cards[6] and traveled to Mexico to document folk culture for the Eameses' 1957 film Day of the Dead.[7][8] She won a Fulbright Scholarship that allowed her to study at the Ulm School of Design in Germany.[9]

Sussman started her own practice in 1968. She met architect and urban planner Paul Prejza in 1972 and married him that year.[3] Sussman and Prejza formed the firm Sussman/Prejza & Co. in 1980 in Culiver City, CA.[10] They specialized in urban branding and designed the look and architectural landscape of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.[11] In 1983, Sussman helped found the AIGA chapter of Los Angeles with Saul Bass and others.[5]

In Stylepedia, authors Steven Heller and Louise Fili wrote that the graphical elements of that Olympics "epitomized a carnivalesque modernity" and placed the work in the Pacific branch of the New Wave design movement.[12] The firm also designed Hasbro's New York facility, and has worked with the City of Santa Monica, the Museum of the African Diaspora, Disney World, and McCaw Hall. The company was later renamed Sussman-Prejza. [citation needed]

Sussman was known for her bold and colorful work that sometimes integrates typography in the environmental landscape.[11] She was awarded an AIGA medal in 2004.[9] In 2013 the WUHO Gallery hosted the first retrospective of Deborah Sussman's early work, spanning her days at Eames Studio up to the 1984 Olympics.[13]

Work

1984 Olympic Games

Before Sussman became involved, a red, white, and blue "star-in-motion" logo for the games has been designed, but it was considered inappropriate to express a nationalistic U.S. presence. Sussman and her designers, along with the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee decided a new logo should specifically express the Los Angeles and Southern California — particularly Mexico, Japan, Indonesia, and India — culture. By combining the traditional elements of the U.S. flag with new colors and forms, they achieved what architect Jon Jerde referred to as "Festive Federalism." In total, there were 150 designs creating the visual language for the 1984 games.[14][15] This work won Time magazine's award for "Best of the Decade."[16]

Other Design Contributions

  • Identity and Branding applications for the Gas Company of Southern California
  • Wayfinding Systems for Walk Disney Resorts
  • Wayfinding Systems for Philadelphia
  • Seattle Opera
  • McCaw Hall
  • Exhibit Design for the Museum of the African Diaspora
  • Designed the identity of the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1993[5]

Death

Sussman died of breast cancer at the age of 83 on August 19, 2014.[17][18]

References

  1. ^ Heller, Steven (2011). I Heart Design: Remarkable Graphic Design Selected by Designers, Illustrators, and Critics. Beverly, Mass.: Rockport Publishers. p. 180. ISBN 978-1-61058-032-8.
  2. ^ Poulin, Richard (2012). Graphic Design and Architecture, A 20th Century History. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers. p. 18. ISBN 978-1-59253-779-2.
  3. ^ a b c d Walker, Alissa (2011). "Sussman, Deborah". The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 620–621. ISBN 978-0-19-533579-8.
  4. ^ Black Mountain College application, Western Reg. Archives, NC State Archives.
  5. ^ a b c Gomez-Palacio, Bryony; Armin, Vit (2008). Women of Design. 4700 East Galbraithe Road, Cincinnati, Ohio 45236: HOW Vooks. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-60061-085-1. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)CS1 maint: location (link) Cite error: The named reference "Women of Design" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  6. ^ "Artist Interviews: Deborah Sussman". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  7. ^ Aynsley, Jeremy (2011). "Developing a Language of Vision: Graphic Design in California". California Design, 1930–1965: Living in a Modern Way. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art. p. 277. ISBN 978-0-262-01607-0.
  8. ^ Berger, Craig M. (2009). "The Wayfinding Designer". The Wayfinding Handbook: Information Design for Public Places. New York: Princeton Architectural Press. p. 25. ISBN 978-1-56898-769-9.
  9. ^ a b "Deborah Sussman". AIGA. Retrieved December 14, 2013.
  10. ^ Schell, Amy (2005). Inspirability: 40 Top Designers Speak Out About What Inspires (1st ed.). Cincinnati, OH: Pash. p. 158. ISBN 1-58180-555-1. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  11. ^ a b LLC Pantone; Leatrice Eiseman; Keith Recker (1 November 2011). Pantone: The Twentieth Century in Color. Chronicle Books. p. 160. ISBN 978-1-4521-1313-5.
  12. ^ Heller, Steven; Fili, Louise (2006). "New Wave". Stylepedia: A Guide to Graphic Design Mannerisms, Quirks, and Conceits. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-8118-3346-2.
  13. ^ "WUHO". http://wuho.architecture.woodbury.edu/?p=1512. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  14. ^ Gomez, Bryony; Vit, Armin (2008). Women of Design. Cincinnati, Ohio: HOW Books. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-60061-085-1.
  15. ^ Poulin, Richard (2012). Graphic Design + Architecture, a 20th Century History. Beverly, MA: Rockport Publishers. pp. 198–199. ISBN 978-1-59253-779-2.
  16. ^ Poulin, Richard (2012). Graphic Design + Architecture: A 20th Century History. Beverly, Massachusetts: Rockport Publishers. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-59253-779-2. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  17. ^ "Graphic designer Deborah Sussman has died aged 83". designboom.com. Retrieved August 21, 2014.
  18. ^ Colker, David (August 22, 2014). "Deborah Sussman dies at 83; L.A. designer known for bold use of color". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2014-08-23.

External links

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