Tibor Kalman was a pioneering figure in the field of graphic design and an influential figure in the development of the modern design aesthetic. Born in Hungary in 1949, Kalman emigrated to the United States in the 1960s and studied graphic design at the University of Illinois.
Throughout his career, Kalman was known for his innovative approach to design and his dedication to social and political activism. He was a co-founder of the graphic design firm M&Co, which was known for its unconventional and experimental approach to design. Kalman's work was characterized by a bold, graphic style and a strong sense of social and political consciousness.
One of Kalman's most famous projects was the redesign of the publication Colors, which was a magazine that focused on cultural diversity and global issues. Kalman's redesign of the magazine was innovative and influential, and it helped to establish the publication as a leading voice in the world of design and cultural criticism.
In addition to his work as a designer, Kalman was also an influential teacher and writer. He taught at various universities and was a frequent speaker at design conferences and events. He also wrote several books on design and cultural criticism, including "The Graphic Language of Neville Brody" and "Please Pay Attention Please: Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto for Growth."
Kalman's work had a significant impact on the world of graphic design and continues to be widely admired and studied today. He was a pioneer in the use of unconventional design techniques and a strong advocate for the role of design in promoting social and political change. His legacy as a designer and cultural critic lives on through the many designers and students who have been inspired by his work.
Tibor Kalman
. Tibor Kalman is a well known American graphic designer born on July 6, 1949, in Budapest, Hungary. He directed the advertising and display of what had grown from one to fifty-five outlets in eight years. Nonetheless, his most meaningful job was editor-and-chief of Colors magazine, the Italian and English magazine published by the Italian clothing company Benetton. The New York Times. Typography, striking graphic design, and the juxtaposition of various photographs and doctored images by photographer Oliviero Toscani helped communicate the style of the magazine. Furthermore, Kalman used his company and encouraged his clients to support awareness of social issues through advertising political or social messages.
AIGA the professional association for design. In 1967 he enrolled at New York University, where he began working on the newspaper and became a member of Students for a Democratic Society, the radical organization that orchestrated campus shutdowns to protest the Vietnam War. Kalman entered the profession through happenstance, bringing with him none of the prejudices of design school training, and little of the expertise. He dropped out of NYU in 1970 and illicitly traveled to Cuba as a member of the Venceremos Brigade to cut sugar cane and learn about Cuban culture. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
In 1979, Kalman was hired by a discount department store as the creative director for signs and displays. The New York Times. Returning to New York in 1971, he was hired by Leonard Riggio as creative director of the Student Book Exchange where he had worked while at NYU. In 1990, Kalman moved to Rome to found Colors. In 1997, Kulman returned to New York after working as editor-and-chief of Colors for three years to battle cancer. Colors ultimately chose to appear as a teaser for a magazine addressed to serious topics such as war and love. Escape came with Colors, the Benetton-sponsored magazine he founded with Oliviero Toscani.
Born in Budapest, his family fled Hungary for New York in 1956 following the Soviet invasion. Kalman put forward a distinctly modernist notion that good design for good causes can improve the environment. He believed that award-winning design was only possible when the client was ethical, and frequently called other designers out when he did not agree with their actions. His radical views ultimately persuaded the way designers think and how they define their roles in culture and society. Kulman was not afraid to cross boundaries, even if it was to display the queen of England as a black woman for the issue devoted to racism.
Returning to New York in 1971, Kalman was hired by Leonard Riggo to work for the Student Book Exchange at N. Tibor Kalman viewed graphic design as a means to an end. After a year, he dropped out of college and traveled to Cuba as a member of the Venceremos Brigade to cut sugar cane and learn about Cuban culture. In the New York Times, he attacked social issues such as smoking and noise pollution by writing OpArt critiques for the OpEd Page. He later moved to the United States in 1956 with his family shortly after escaping his home country due to the Soviet invasion. Yet Kalman was a perplexing combination of business entrepreneur, media maven, social activist, and professional outsider. If you are planning a visit to SFMOMA to see a specific work of art, we suggest you contact us at Only a portion of SFMOMA's collection is currently online, and the information presented here is subject to revision.
He eventually became editor-and-chief of an Italian clothing magazine, Colors , where he rejects fashion magazine cliques to promote socio-political issues. Health problems forced him to return to the U. Otherwise, he argued, what is the point of being a designer? He wanted to create unpredictable work as well as promote social responsibility. His promotional investments paid off. By the mid-1980s he had transformed a firm that once "sold design by the pound" for banks and department stores into a soapbox for his social mission. Knowing he had only a short time to live, he only took on clients that mattered to him—and found a way to make commercial art serve society, the ultimate client. They settled in Poughkeepsie, New York, where Kalman began his academic career at New York University to study journalism and join the Students for the Democratic Society.
He argued the efficacy of social responsibility towards all corporations and promoted the notion that good design for good causes can improve the environment. He mostly guided the look, not the content, of these publications which made Kalman frustrated since he was not in total control. When he was seven, the Soviets poised for the invasion of Hungary and his family fled to America—Poughkeepsie, New York to be exact. New York City Municipal Archives. He could hone in on how design could be used as a tool in the communication and propagation of his ideas. The American Institute of Graphic Arts presented him with the highest honor of an AIGA medal just before his death in 1999.
He also managed to design an outdoor installation of photographs to hang on the scaffold around the Conde Nast tower of real people commenting on their experiences with Times Square. Please contact us at This resource is for educational use and its contents may not be reproduced without permission. It focused on sociocultural issues such as racism, AIDS, and even sports to challenge the flexible minds of young readers. Kalman was determined to develop a new sense of style and purpose for designers that could benefit the social world. Here Kalman found his true métier.
He argued in lectures, writing, and through satiric visual essays of the waste involved in most corporate identity systems and the hypocrisy and obfuscation in design for bad companies. Furthermore, he taught a pictorial narrative class to graduates at the School of Visual Arts, all while still fighting chemo. A founding editor of Colors, the Benetton-sponsored magazine focusing on multiculturalism, Kalman's own sense of global awareness developed at an early age. For the next eight years he directed the advertising and display of what had grown from one to fifty-five outlets. Born in 1949 in Budapest, Hungary, Kalman was the oldest of two sons.
