Honoring Chermayeff & Geismar: 60 years of logos
This year, the world of logo design has lost one of its most prominent representatives, Ivan Chermayeff. In the odd case you don’t know who that is let me break it down for you really quickly. 60 years ago this man, Yale graduate, along with his Tom Geisman, founded the legendary firm Chermayeff & Geismar. It would become to be known as the creators of logos for such companies as Pan Am, Chase Bank, NBC and Xerox; channels such as Showtime and National Geogrpahic; and brands like Armani Exchange.
In 1979 Ivan Chermayeff and Thomas Geismar were awarded the AIGA Medal and in October 2014 they received the National Design Award for Lifetime by the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Since, 2006 another designer joined forced in the firm, as a partner, Sagi Haviv. Apart from logos, they also deal with motion graphics and art in architecture.
Unfortunately, Chermayeff died this year, on December 3rd. He left behind a true legacy that will most likely be continued by its remaining two partners.
This is the man that said: “It is usually a two-month process, but it should look like it took five minutes.” That’s exactly what everyone in the business knows to be true. Only they’ve been doing it so successfully for 60 years, and counting.
To honor the two pioneering professionals, Dan Covert of Dress Code created the video below, which also features the last interview Ivan Chermayeff gave. The world of design has definitely lost a legend.
