
Dan Friedman. © Joe Coscia, Jr.
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, 1970–74.
75
hired as a senior designer at Anspach Grossman Portugal

The Citibank Identification Standards Manual, 1975.
79
starts working for Pentagram
84
first solo art exhibition “Mr. D Starts Fresh” at the Fun Gallery

Wisdom 1, 1989. Collection of Loretta Michaelcheck. © Antoine Bootz.
Installation view of 'Dan Friedman: Radical Modernist' exhibition (October 1, 2014–January 9, 2015), National Design Center Gallery at AIGA, the professional association for design in NYC: www.aiga.org/dan-friedman-exhibition. Photo by Steve Haslip, 2014. © AIGA.

94
appointed a professor of graphic design at the Cooper Union
94
publishes his first book, “Dan Friedman: Radical Modernism”
Interior spread of Dan Friedman: Radical Modernism, Yale University Press, 1994. © Joseph Astor.

95
dies of AIDS at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York
be radical. —dan friedman

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.

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














