Speak Up Archive: An Eye for an Eye: A Visual Remembrance of Lou Dorfsman, 1918

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An Eye for an Eye: A Visual Remembrance of Lou Dorfsman, 1918 – 2008

Last Wednesday, October 22, Lou Dorfsman passed away. For forty-five years he worked at CBS, shaping everything in his and its path. Both Michael Bierut and Steve Heller have captured his life in words. What follows is a little bit of his life in images. These photographs were taken from the vast archives of his work at the Herb Lubalin Study Center in Cooper Union, Dorfsman’s alma mater. Our best wishes are with Dorfsman’s family and friends.

You may click on all images for a bigger view. Lighting conditions were not the best, so I apologize for inconsistent quality.

Maintained through our ADV @ UnderConsideration Program

ENTRY DETAILS
ARCHIVE ID 5402 FILED UNDER Designer/Design Firm Profile
PUBLISHED ON Oct.29.2008 BY Armin
WITH COMMENTS

Comments

Truly spectacular, thank you Armin.

On Oct.30.2008 at 08:13 AM

An absolutely stunning tribute to a design legend.

On Oct.30.2008 at 10:27 AM

Thank you for the tribute. He really was the best that there is. If you can get a copy, read the interview with him in Communication Arts that was published in the 1980s, as it tells the whole history of his work with CBS. I wish I knew the date.

On Oct.30.2008 at 02:17 PM

Lou Dorfsman's middle name is TASTE!
Thank you Armin!

On Oct.31.2008 at 08:47 AM

My thoughts to Mr. Dorfsman's friends and family. An excellent tribute, Armin, to a career well worth remembering.

On Oct.31.2008 at 10:30 AM

My thoughts to Mr. Dorfsman's friends and family. An excellent tribute, Armin, to a career well worth remembering.

On Oct.31.2008 at 10:30 AM

wow, everything is still so fresh and inspiring,
thank you for sharing!

On Oct.31.2008 at 10:53 AM

They did a nice little piece on him on the Sunday Morning show. It was a great retrospective.

Among the thousand of brand materials and collateral for CBS -- my favorite among the things they showed was an amazing typographic brand wall in the CBS commissary. Sadly, I don't think it's up anymore.

His life and career at CBS spanned decades -- something that just doesn't happen anymore. In my dad's generation, it was common for people to spend most of their working life at one company before retiring. But those days are gone, along with men like Lou Dorfman.

On Oct.31.2008 at 12:37 PM

Thanks for posting these, Armin!

On Oct.31.2008 at 12:44 PM

> my favorite among the things they showed was an amazing typographic brand wall in the CBS commissary. Sadly, I don't think it's up anymore.

Tan, full story here.

On Oct.31.2008 at 02:10 PM

Of course, I should've known you would cover it.

There's a floor in the new Rem Koolhaas Seattle library that pays homage to the Dorfman wall. But it's not as cool.

On Oct.31.2008 at 02:50 PM

A touching and inspiring tribute to a great designer and human being. My deepest condolences to his family. May his legacy inspire us all to do great work no matter where we are or who we work for. For he certainly did that.

On Oct.31.2008 at 02:52 PM

Armin, thank you for this.

On Oct.31.2008 at 09:27 PM

On the CBS Sunday Morning tribute, they called him an “art designer”.

I wonder if it was an editorial mixing by someone who did not know that there are art directors and graphic designers but not art designers?

or did he call himself an Art Designer?

On Nov.01.2008 at 01:25 PM

Great tribute Armin! Just curious: what did you you use for the photos? Is it just available light and a digital camera with mo tripod?

On Nov.03.2008 at 02:48 PM

Doug, yeah, just natural light, no tripod and our trusty Sony point-and-shoot digital camera. Minor color retouching on Photoshop. Not ideal, but gets the point across.

On Nov.03.2008 at 03:02 PM

Fantastic. Brilliant. Thanks:-)

Not to be picky or anything, but on "Lou_Dorfsman_32.jpg" I spot four hyphens in a row!;-) Ouch. Well, it was the 60's...

On Nov.04.2008 at 08:57 AM