19

45

born in Cleveland, Ohio

63

accepted to the Ulm School of Design

70

graduates from the Basel School of Design

70

becomes a professor at Yale University, at the age of 25

Dan Friedman with his Yale class. A group of people holding a flag with the words Graphic Design

Dan Friedman with his Yale Class, 1970–74.

75

hired as a senior designer at Anspach Grossman Portugal

 

Created with Sketch.

be radical. —dan friedman

Dan Friedman in his Postnuclearism installation at Red Studio Gallery

Dan Friedman in his Postnuclearism installation at Red Studio Gallery, NYC 1984. © Joe Coscia, Jr.

ulm’s breakaway

Dan Friedman was among few Americans who had a chance to receive proper European design education. But legendary Ulm was nothing like he had imagined. The school had a very precise, almost scientific approach to design, with a lot of theory, psychology and even math. What used to be, ten years ago, a cutting-edge way to teach turned into a dusty ghost of Modernism.

 

Proposed wrappings for Bonwit Teller department store, while with Anspach Grossman Portugal, 1976.

it is a profession which involves a great deal of drudgery and concern about minutiae that can only be measured in quarter points and millimetres. graphic design has always defined its focus in narrow terms—in ways that may stimulate graphic designers into a frenzy but mean nothing to the rest of society.
—dan friedman




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