Robert Brownjohn
Robert Brownjohn (August 8, 1925 – August 1, 1970) was an American graphic designer known for blending formal graphic design concepts with wit and 1960s pop culture. He is best known for his motion picture title sequences, especially From Russia with Love and Goldfinger. Early life He was born to British parents on August 8, 1925, in Newark, New Jersey, where his father was a bus driver. In 1937, at age 12, his father died. Despite the comparative disinclination of his family, Brownjohn showed early artistic promise. After attending the Pratt Institute in nearby Brooklyn, New York, for a year, he earned a place at the Institute of Design in Chicago, Illinois, formerly known as the New Bauhaus by founder László Moholy-Nagy, in 1944. Regarded as a prodigy by his peers, Brownjohn became a protégé of Moholy-Nagy and his successor, Serge Chermayeff; much of the structural quality in Brownjohn's graphic design can be traced to the former's important influence. In his spare time, he experimented with marijuana and heroin (culminating in an early rehabilitation stint at the behest of Chermayeff) and often frequented the city's jazz clubs with Chermayeff and Buckminster Fuller, then an Institute faculty member. Because of his proclivities, Brownjohn became intimately acquainted with Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday and other musicians of the era. After receiving a nonprofessional B.A. in architecture in May 1948, Brownjohn initially worked as an architectural planner in Chicago before returning to the Institute (which had been absorbed as a unit of the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1949) to assist Chermayeff and teach his own courses in the school's evening division. He also worked as a freelance designer for several magazines, including Esquire and Coronet. New York career In 1951, Brownjohn returned to New York City in order to further his graphic design career. Continuing to work freelance for the next five years, he completed projects for a wide variety of clients, including Columbia Records. Brownjohn's effusive personality and fondness for jazz music allowed his friendships with Parker and Miles Davis, among others, to blossom as he became a part of the bohemian social scene in the city. Brownjohn also became addicted to heroin in earnest during this period. He was never to conquer this affliction and it contributed to his untimely death at the age of 44. In 1956, Brownjohn married Donna Walters. The couple went on to have a daughter, Eliza. The following year, Brownjohn formed Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar (BCG) with fellow designers Ivan Chermayeff (a son of Brownjohn's mentor) and Tom Geismar. BCG designed for print initially, producing experiments in typographical design as well as taking on commercial projects. Amongst the experimental work was the booklet, Watching Words Move, in which words were redesigned to suggest their meaning in graphical as well as literal terms, e.g. "+dd", "-tract" and "sexxx". In 1958 BCG won the commission to design the United States' stand at the Brussels World's Fair. BCG also counted the Pepsi-Cola Company amongst its largest clients at this