Skip to main content

Georg Olden - Lavi Tang

By Lavi Tang



Georg Olden was an AIGA medal-winning graphic designer who was known as the pioneer of broadcast graphics. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Olden was the son of a Baptist minister and classically trained singer. He grew up in Washington D.C., followed by attending Virginia State College, before dropping out shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor to work as a graphic designer for the Office Strategic Services (OSS). From there, Olden supervisor recommended him to the agency's communications division Lawrence W. Lowman, who was also the VP of CBS's TV division. Olden eventually transitioned to working for CBS, as one of the first Black men to work in television. During this time, he supervised the identities of sports titles and supervised the identities of programs such as I Love Lucy and Lassie. He eventually headed a staff of 14 while being in charge of 60 weekly shows. 


CBS news titles: Years of Crisis and Capitol Hill to New York

CBS sports titles: Wrestling, Big Ten Basketball, The Masters Golf Tournament and The Kentucky Derby



In 1960, Olden took a job as a television group art director at the advertising agency BBDO. Ebony magazine featured him as "artist, a dreamer, a designer, a thinker, and a huskter." Though he soldiered on in corporate America, Olden conquered obstacles that denied other POC from advancement. Despite the efforts of the civil rights movement, Olden was ambitious. By 1963, he joined an elite department within the ad agency McCann-Erikson. That same year, he became the first African American to design a postage stamp, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation  Proclamation. Olden attended the White House ceremony while President John F. Kennedy praised his work as "a reminder of the extraordinary actions in the past as well as the business of the future." 


Georg Olden's features in Ebony Magazine

Georg Olden's features in Ebony Magazine

Batten, Barton, Dustine & Osborn, Inc. Office Telephone Directory

Stamp honoring the Emancipation Proclamation, 1963; below: design unveiling at White House with President John F. Kennedy
                    


Olden was significant in defining the field of design for other designers of color. Lowell Thompson, Michele Y. Washington, and Frank Briggs, all contemporary practitioners, have worked to bring his contributions to light and have each claimed him as an inspiration to their own works. Olden's influence not only resonated from a stylistic level, but also on a personal one; he aspired to present himself through his talents, speaking to his works from his identity.

 "As the first black American to achieve an executive position with a major corporation, my goal was the same as that of Jackie Robinson in baseball: to achieve maximum respect and recognition by my peers, the industry and the public, thereby hopefully expanding acceptance of, and opportunities for, future black Americans in business." - Georg Olden
Awards: 
Art Directors Club of NY, 1953 and 1956
Cannes Film Festival, Advertising prize, 1967
Seven Clio Awards, 1962-1970
AIGA Medal, 2007
Sources:
https://www.aiga.org/aiga/content/inspiration/aiga-medalist/2007-aiga-medalist-georg-olden/http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/georg-olden-pioneering-blacks-ad-industry/134590/https://www.encyclopedia.com/education/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/olden-george-1920-1975









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beverly Loraine Greene (1915-1957)

By
Beverly Loraine Greene was born October 4 th , 1915 in Chicago Illinois. Although she was born during a time where she was not accepted in the professional world she never stopped moving towards her goal of becoming an architect. In 1936, Greene made history by becoming the first African American female to earn a bachelor of science degree in architectural engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. Although she was “ amidst a sea of white male faces” at school, Beverly was known for having a calm presence that allowed her to focus on her difficult education (Illinois.edu). After graduating she began to search for a job in the industry, albeit the many obstacles in her way. Although it was difficult to find work at first due to racial discrimination, Greene’s talent and drive landed her a job with the Chicago Housing authority. This made her the first African American to be a part of the Chicago Housing authority, a corporation that oversees the housing in the cit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Let's fix history

By
OK, you're down to do the work. Cool. First, let's talk about what we mean by "Design" and "Designer". Design as a formal profession has only been around for a relatively short time, during which BIPOC were systematically excluded from both higher education (where designers become formalized) and industry (where designers work). On top of this, systematic oppression of BIPOC has kept their wealth and power in the economy low, which is used as a justification not to design with or for these end users. So, we will need to expand our idea of design beyond that which is done by formally trained designers. Instead, we should think about all traditions of problem solving which try to satisfy human need with technological capability, while pursuing an aesthetically beautiful solution. These may include traditional crafts, toolmaking, architectural design or decoration of traditional buildings, traditional graphical motifs and styles, letterforms or scripts, graphic...
Post a Comment
Read more

Althea McNish, Trinidadian Textile Designer

By
By Katrina Filer Born in Trinidad but living in the foggy, grey world of London in the 50s, Althea McNish brought the colorful inspiration of her birthplace to the British textile scene. She was descended from former Black slaves who had fought for the British in the war of 1812, and she was born while Trinidad was still a colony, 38 years before they gained independence. Her impressionist-style prints based in the Caribbean's natural beauty were groundbreaking, pushing the way that her contemporaries looked at fashion, interior design, or anything else that could hold a pattern. Surrounded by a culture that constantly appropriated the art of its colonies (Trinidad included) and deep in a white male-dominated field, McNish still found her place in the fashion and textile industry, wielding genre-defining abstractions of tropical and floral beauty.  Angela Cobbinah. Althea McNish in 2008. Photography courtesy of the Camden New Journal. McNish's early life in Trinidad was charact...
Post a Comment
Read more