The Early Years of Graphic Design at Yale University

Abstract

Yale University was the first in this country to establish a degree program in graphic design. The term “graphic design” had been used earlier by professionals including William Dwiggins, Alvin Lustig, Herbert Bayer, Ladislav Sutnar, Lester Beale, and William Golden. During the 1930s, there was a high school program in graphic design at Brooklyn taught by Leon Friend who also coauthored a book titled Graphic Design. Alvin Lustig taught a summer course at Black Mountain college called graphic design prior to coming to Yale. Institutions such as Cooper Union, Cranbrook, and the Institute of Design offered courses in graphic design, but not a degree. The Yale program was unique at the time, and its graduates were instrumental to establishing the profession of graphic design in the United States during the 1960s. The origins and early years of graphic design at Yale University are therefore of historic importance. The defining years were between 1950 and 1955, when the program was established, took shape, and set a course. Between 1955 and 1965, it matured, and the majority of graduates moved into professional practice while others were recruited to teach in design programs around the country. On July 15, 1950, the New York Times reported an announcement by Dr. Charles Sawyer, Dean of the College of Fine Arts and Director of the Division of the Arts, regarding a new Department of Design at Yale University with Josef Albers as chairman. Instruction in the new program was to begin during the 1950–51 academic year. The explanation given today by Dr. Sawyer for a “Department of Design” was to disassociate the new program from the existing one in fine art, and to better identify it with architecture. Of no small consequence was the fact that it also permitted Albers to develop curriculum and hire new faculty without interference from tenured faculty members. The program was described as a four-year course with a revised professional curriculum in painting, sculpture, and the graphic arts. The design program would culminate in a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. In a letter from Josef Albers to Alvin Lustig dated February 23, 1951, Albers explains, “...so far, all students are working together in only two rooms of which one is the printing shop. 1 Yale did not invent graphic design. Its origins are European and date back to the turn of the century. Before the 1960s in America, graphic design perhaps was more of a label than a profession, but by the 1960s, graphic design was clearly a profession. No other institution has had the same impact on the profession and education as Yale University. This claim is based on graphic design at Yale as a sequential program in itself, and not as a course or courses within a broader program. Graphic design was a regionally accredited degree program, and it was Yale graduates who were directly responsible for establishing graphic design as a profession separate from advertising during the 1950s and 1960s. The Yale graphic design curriculum was the model for most educational institutions changing from advertising to graphic design educational programs during the 1960s. Yale graduates established and staffed many of these educational programs. 2 Leon Friend and Joseph Hefter, Graphic Design: A Library of Old and New Masters in the Graphic Arts (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1936).