Numbers have meaning to Tom Geismar. He is 93; he has been founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar for 67 years; he designed the identity for America’s bicentennial expositions in 1976; and he has prepared for 2026’s 250-year celebration, too. With this swirl of numbers, it felt right to interview him about what is past, present and future.
The last time I interviewed you and Ivan, I believe, was during your 50th anniversary as a partnership. How does it feel to be working so many decades—now almost seven, if my math serves me well?
It has been 67 years since Robert Brownjohn, Ivan Chermayeff and I first formed our initial “design office.” We purposely wanted our little firm to be seen more as an architect’s “office” than as an individual designer’s “studio.” (This was a time when “graphic design” was a little understood term.)
From the beginning we viewed design as a “problem-solving” endeavor, believing that once we could define “the problem,” we could then employ whatever elements were most appropriate to “solving the problem” in a creative and memorable way.
At 93 you are one of the last Midcentury Modern designers. It’s a good time to take stock of what’s happened in design over these years. How do you think shifts in technology have impacted the creative practice?
I know that to most people, it seems crazy to still be “working” at 93. But it does strike me that many of my contemporaries in creative fields, those that have been healthy enough to make it this far, also continue to design, draw, paint or whatever it is that they have been doing for a lifetime.
Being part of a “design office” of 15 people, developing graphic identities for major organizations throughout the world, is of course different from continuing to be creative in your own personal studio. In my case, while I am continually frustrated by some of the digital world, especially Adobe Illustrator, significant shifts in technology have made continuing to work much more doable. We do have a physical office, but since the pandemic it is only occupied two days a week. Otherwise, everyone is working on a shared server, we continually converse and analyze design concepts on Zoom, and I almost always work from my studio at home. We even have some full-time design staff members who live and work (on New York time) as far away as Beijing, and fully participate in all aspects of our design projects. Additionally, new technologies and the internet have made it possible for people anywhere in the world to contact us, and at least 50% of our projects are for clients outside the U.S.
Looking back at your own work, are you pleased?
Certainly today the world and the times have changed, the technology is radically different, the options available to designers have greatly expanded, but I still believe in [our] original concept, though it does seem harder to pull off in these times of visual overload.
When you began, and throughout your career, you’ve done many of the creative and strategic tasks now ascribed to branding. What do you call your practice?
Twenty years ago, recognizing the realities of age (and New York real estate), Ivan and I decided to considerably limit the kinds of projects we wanted to undertake in the future, and consequently greatly reduce the size of our office. A number of our partners and associates then separately formed a new firm to concentrate on exhibition design and architectural graphics. Ivan and I chose to concentrate on developing graphic identities. We rented a small new office and brought with us a young design intern recently graduated from Cooper Union named Sagi Haviv. Over the ensuing years Sagi proved to be an exceptional talent, both as a designer and as a leader. Ten years later we made him an equal partner. Upon Ivan’s death in 2017, Sagi took on an even greater role and today he really leads our entire practice.
You were deeply involved in the identity for the U.S. Bicentennial. Tell me what you did?
For many years Ivan Chermayeff and I and our team were the designers or co-designers of a number of significant projects to represent the United States. Among these were the official United States pavilions at Expo ’67 in Montreal and Expo ’70 in Osaka, Japan. Other exhibition designs focused on specific historic issues such as the original Kennedy Presidential Library, a new museum on the history of the Statue of Liberty, and all the original exhibits for the new Immigration Museum at Ellis Island.
One such project that was widely seen was the design of the logo for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976. That mark was used to identify events, celebrations and commemorations throughout the country. It appeared on promotions for local, regional and national projects, and on merchandise and objects ranging from a postage stamp to a large NASA structure on Mars.
What will be designed differently than the 200th?
50 years later, we were asked to design the graphic identity for the United States Semiquincentennial (!), the 250th anniversary celebration of the nation in 2026. Since the actual name is impossible to remember or pronounce, we decided to focus on the number 250, and to do so in a way that conveyed not only the national colors but also a spirit of celebration. The design was inspired by the idea of ribbons, since ribbons are commonly used to signify a wide variety of events, causes and celebrations. This will all become more evident in the next year or so, presuming we still have a recognizable country!
The post The Daily Heller: Tom Geismar on 67 Years and the Number 250 appeared first on PRINT Magazine.