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2009 AIGA MEDAL
Students generally have very little idea of the world they are
entering into, and their teachers—like parents—are viewed as beings
who alternately guide and admonish; rarely are those teachers
viewed as individuals or is their professional standing considered.
It is usually only afterward, when young people encounter real-life
situations in their chosen professions that they sometimes learn
(if they are lucky) that they studied with one of the greats. Those
fortunate enough to have studied with Doyald Young at Art Center
College of Design, in any of the years since he started teaching
lettering and logotype design (from 1955–1978, followed by
1997–present), are likely to develop a gradual, yet profound
appreciation for the rarity and importance of that experience.
An education with Doyald Young would be to learn from one of the
most precise hands and knowledgeable eyes of our time. His
understanding of the form of the letter, the arc of the curve and
the subtleties of logotypes, is unsurpassed in North America. There
are few that Young would defer to internationally, with the notable
exception of his friend Hermann Zapf.
Born in Holliday, Texas in 1926, Young has had many years to
practice, despite taking a somewhat circuitous route to the area of
his expertise. After leaving home at age 15, he worked as a
bellhop, an usher and a railroad brakeman; he dismantled junk cars
in his father's wrecking yard and took on an astonishing variety of
other unskilled jobs in the biggest U.S. cities and “jerk-water
towns” from East to West and North to South. In 1946, at age 19, he
settled in Los Angeles, where he continued his odyssey of manual
labor. Young's “first encounter with a square-tipped rigger brush”
came while writing point-of-purchase show cards for W. T. Grant's
five-and-dime store. Some silkscreening followed, and after another
string of odd jobs, he enrolled in evening classes at Frank Wiggins
Trade School.
It was in 1948 at Frank Wiggins that Young's formal training
began, when he was taught by Joe Gibby to draw and ink letters with
a brush, and to really see the letterform. A more rigorous training
and attention to detail came from Mortimer Leach at Art Center
during the 1950s. The string of jobs continued but now he would
rely on his hands rather than his back, and in 1955 Young started
to teach at Art Center—first as Leach's assistant, and then on his
own—as well as begin the freelance work he continues to this day.
Young credits his long-term business relationships with designer
Mary Sheridan and industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss with his
further education in “taste, psychology, practicality, formality,
design, client relations, presentations, and understated
prestige.”
Taste. Practicality. Formality. Understated prestige. The
combination of those qualities forms as perfect a descriptor of
Young's work as any you are likely to find, both in the process and
the result. Although he is widely known for his elegant curves and
scripts, he has never been a showy designer—there's not a trace of
ego in his work. The range of letterforms able to flow at any time
from his hand is great, and there is no way to particularly define
Young's mark unless you have seen the hand-drawn comp. That is
where his work is unmistakable: perfect letterforms drawn in pencil
at a surprisingly small size without so much as a mark of
hesitation or awkwardness. The style varies but the fluidity and
perfection do not.
To the contemporary designer, who begins the process of creating
a logotype by trying out multiple variations of any of the hundreds
(or thousands) of fonts available on their computer, Young's
technique is both astonishing and daunting. It is unfathomable how
much time and energy his approach would take, but such is Young's
mastery that it takes him only a minute or two to produce each
iteration for a comp—beyond any doubt, far less time than it takes
the average designer to hunt for and fiddle with various fonts.
Furthermore, his results are infinitely more interesting, as he
is able to quickly recognize and exploit the opportunities for
joined or nested letters, interesting intersections, angles, shapes
and weight changes within the logotype. He may produce 40 to 100
roughs in a few days in a variety of lettering styles, each one
unique from the next.
Then, lest you imagine an antiquated codger stuck in time with
pencil and paper, Young, upon approval of the final logotype, will
create a precise copy in vector outlines with every curve and
detail perfectly rendered and adjusted for use in print. He has, in
fact, been working on the computer since 1988 and using digital
applications for his artwork since 1993. He has also created
complete fonts from scratch, which, to those who know the trials
and tedium of kerning and hinting, is no mean task. While adept at
the computer, he remains adamant in promoting drawing for the start
and development of the letterforms.
Young's typographic skills have benefited a company list as
extensive as it is impressive. It includes logotypes for hotels,
clubs, universities, cosmetics, financials, arts and practically
every other industry, and includes many of the biggest names:
Hilton, Prudential, Max Factor, Sony. His letters have also adorned
many of the most well-known awards shows in the entertainment
industry (the Grammys, Golden Globe, the Tonys) and a veritable
grandstand of celebrities, including Elvis Presley, Liza Minnelli,
Frank Sinatra, Bette Midler and Prince.
Young has created several corporate fonts, but in 1985 he
released his first commercially available fonts: Young Baroque, an
elegant script, followed by Eclat, a fat-face script, both
developed by Letraset. More recently he developed and released Home
Run and Home Run Sanscript (2002–2003), which bear a resemblance to
Eclat, but are more condensed and refined, and have the feel of the
show card in them, as well as Young Finesse (2003), a breezy,
innocent “serifless roman,” and its accompanying italic (2006).
He has written, designed and published three books about his
work: Logotypes & Letterforms (1993), Fonts &
Logos (1999) and Dangerous Curves (2008). He has also
created a promotional book of his work, The Art of the
Letter (2003), for SMART Papers. While all his books have been
critically acclaimed, Fonts & Logos is considered
indispensable by font designers, educators and typographers.
He was named Inaugural Master of the School by Art Center
College of Design in 2001, named a Fellow of the Los Angeles
chapter of AIGA in 2006, and has lectured extensively throughout
the world.
So how do you get to be one of the greats of graphic design? If
Doyald Young is the example, start with a well-rounded education in
life, study with the masters, pay homage to your mentors, work
hard, work long and, like the old joke about how to get to Carnegie
Hall (for which he has also designed), practice, man,
practice.
Resources
New York Times obituary, March 6, 2011
Video: Doyald Young, Logotype Designer, by lynda.com
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