I just read an article about Jerry Kuyper on logo lounge. He has been a great teacher and designer for the last part of the 20th century. However, his major claim to fame is that he just happened to work with some of the best schools, best studios and best designers of our time; all while they were reaching the peak of their design fame. The article jokingly calls him the Forrest Gump of design. I don’t want to bore you with every detail, but I thought I’d add one of my favorite passages:
“The design team was exploring new designs for the United Airlines airplanes, with the goal of improving fuel efficiency by using less paint on the planes. We were looking at wavy and jagged lines, trying to avoid straight lines that everyone else used. Saul (Bass) pointed out that straight lines on a plane-a cliché-communicated a smooth, stable flight to customers, which is exactly what they wanted. Saul believed that something becomes a cliché because it works and the challenge was not to avoid clichés but to use them in a fresh way.”
If you’re a designer, want to hire a designer, or just like design, I recommend this article.
