1 WILL BURTIN

Burtin referred to himself as an “integrator,” a term he used to describe his own position as both a visual

researcher and an interpreter of science, who could deliver ideas with a level of insight deepened by the form

he bestowed upon concepts. He clearly wavered between regarding himself as an artistic “creator” whose

work was informed by the precepts and forms of visual Modernism, and depicting his practice as a sort of

science of visual interpretation, where the work was informed by a discipline of engaged research. It is the

dual nature of Burtin’s practice that remains of interest to contemporary designers seeking to bridge that gap

between participation in research, and the potential use of graphic design as a way of developing and sharing

knowledge.

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 Will Burtin’s story — from his trade education in Germany (a 4-year typographic apprenticeship at

high school) and early work as an enthusiastic advertising designer, through the interruption of his

emergency immigration (his wife was Jewish, and he declined working for the Nazis), and across the

course of his career following his arrival in the U.S. — is presented in Design and Science: The Life

and Work of Will Burtin.

Like all of the emigré “pioneers,” Burtin brought an amazing amount of talent and energy (along

with plain old ambition) to his modernist approach, but he was also the beneficiary of the particu-

lar context of New York at that time: the latter years of the Depression, when modern design was

gaining attention for its innovativeness in the face of a bleak economy. It was hard, but Burtin found

himself work (with the help of the intrepid Robert L. Leslie of The Composing Room).

Between his arrival in New York City in 1938, and his induction into the Army in 1943 (where he

became part of the “Presentation Branch” of the OSS, along with Saul Steinberg and Russell Lynes),

Burtin succeeded enough to have worked for Architectural Forum, Upjohn Company, and had by

this time begun teaching design at Pratt.

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The Army work he was most proud of involved the design of manuals — hard-core information design for

“grunts” — that required filmic editing of photographic imagery coordinated with copy for maximum legibility

and retention.

Burtin was a true believer in the power of design to deliver important and necessary ideas, and his military

work proved that he was flexible enough to see the design opportunities provided by any audience or situ-

ation. But it still seems shocking that his discharge from the Army in 1945 was personally solicited by Henry

Luce, the publisher of Fortune magazine, on the grounds that it was in the national interest that Burtin would

apply his sophisticated skills in managing and visualizing the editorial content that Fortune intended to deliver

to its audience, the American managerial class.

At Fortune, Burtin brought his imagination to bear on the kick-starting of the American and global economy,

the challenges of post-war reconstruction, the creation of a renewed consumer culture, and in particular, the

ascendancy of technology and engineering as sources of innovation and wealth. Every issue of Fortune ex-

plodes with visual intensity that Burtin orchestrated, combining documentary photography, conceptual illustra-

tion, graceful and sober typography, and an amazing array of approaches to charts, graphs and technologi-

cal diagrams. Burtin truly established the role of the art director who is a creative equal to the editorial team,

and whose visual translation of the content is as filled with ideas as the content itself.

With his visual interpretations, Fortune managed to deliver information in a manner that communicated its intel-

ligence visually, simultaneously educating and entertaining its audience.

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 With the support of a single client, the Upjohn Company, Burtin left

Fortune to start his own studio in 1949. After redesigning their corporate

identity, he turned his attention to Scope, their pharmaceutical journal.

While the design of Scope extended along the lines of Fortune, Burtin

re-defined his practice beyond the confines of the advertising or publica-

tions art director, as his design was so integrated with the editorial side

of the journal.

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Integration: The New Discipline in Design, an exhibition that Burtin put

together about his own work (which opened at The Composing Room

in 1948), implored designers to step up to social engagement through

the use of their skills to clarify and explicate a rapidly-changing world

to an audience hungry for understanding. The exhibition had an impact

beyond its specific venues, since Burtin’s text for it was published in Gra-

phis, and he was invited to lecture on this work extensively. The design

of Integration, and Burtin’s metaphor of the designer as the fulcrum by

which form, color, material, texture and light can pivot to otherwise ab-

stract concepts such as time, space, energy and motion, was his entry to

the next, and most remarkable phase of his career, in which he engaged

in the design of large-scale public exhibitions requiring the translation of

scientific concepts into three-dimensional models.

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 1908
Born Cologne, Germany, to August and
Gertrud Burtin
(17 January)

1910 1920 1930 1940

1922
Studied typography at Handwerkskam-
mer Köln (1922-26), and graphic and
industrial design at the Kölner Werk-
schulen (from 1926) with Richard
Riemerschmied and Jacob Erbar.

1922-26
Apprenticed in typesetting studio of Dr.
Philippe Knöll, Cologne, while studying
typography and art. 1938
Designed Flex
Munk Aerona
1926
contract to de
Worked for Philippe Knöll on exhibi-
Agency Exhib
tions for Gesolei in Dusseldorf.
New York Wo

1927-38 Hitler repeate

Opened design studio in Cologne, Burtin become
creating booklets, posters, type books, design directo
exhibitions, displays, advertising and post triggered
movies for German, French and other States. Entr y t
clients. Munk, aerona
of the wind tu

1939
Super vise
Federal W
Designed
Fair issue
magazine
in New Yo
booklets,
exhibits.
Directors

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 1972
Will Burtin died on Januar y 18, in Mount Sinai Hospital, New York.
Saul Bass gave the eulogy at a memorial in New York. In Septem-
ber, the United States Embassy in London hosted a memorial
exhibition which ran for two weeks. The Cleveland Health Museum
and Education Center housed the Cell, Defense of Life, the Brain
and the Chromosome Puff as permanent exhibits.

0 1950 1960 1970

1943-45
Drafted into U.S. Army and assigned to
Office of Strategic Services (OSS);
designed visual presentations of
"strategic subjects" classified. at OSS.
Family moved to Washington, D.C.,
living with Max Munk and twin sister,
Thekla. Designed gunnery manuals for
U.S. Air Forces aerial gunners.
1957
Began design of a walk-in Cell exhibit
for The Upjohn Company. Designed
traveling exhibit "Kalamazoo - Window
on America" for the U.S. Information
Agency. Exhibit was shown in several
British cities. The USIA requested a
version for Germany.

xOprop logo, trademark of
autical Laboratory. Won
esign Federal Works
bition for U.S. Pavilion at
orld's Fair.
ed Goebbels' demand that
e Propaganda Ministry's
or. Pressure to accept this
d hasty escape to United
to U.S. sponsored by Max
autics pioneer and inventor
unnel.
ed 80 people to create the
Works Agency Exhibition.
d cover for New York World's
e of The Architectural Forum
e. Established design practice
York; created advertisements,
magazines, covers and
Awarded New York Art
Club medal for cover design.
1950
Lectured at Parsons School of Design,
New York, as well as at Pratt. Editor of
the Architectural Forum, James Marston
Fitch, appointed Burtin design consul-
tant to the magazine.
1958
The Cell exhibit opened at the annual
convention of the American Medical
Association. The Cell gained wide
national and international attention. The
AMA awarded Burtin its Gold Medal;
the Art Directors' Club awarded a
medal. Burtin chaired the First World
Seminar on Typography at Silvermine.
Designed the "Upjohn Pharmacy"
exhibit for Disneyland. The German
version of the Kalamazoo exhibit drew
record crowds in Berlin. Will and Hilda
Burtin saw samples of the new Helvetica
font in Zurich, returning to New York
with sample sheets. Aaron Burns and
Will Burtin organized the first interna-
tional typography seminar, The Art and
Science of Typography, in Silvermine,
Connecticut.

1945-49
Fortune magazine asked the Army to
discharge Burtin; recruited him as art
director. His contract permitted
freelance work, and assignments for
Upjohn and other clients grew in
number. He resumed teaching at Pratt.
Several awards from the New York Art
Directors Club.
1949
Will Burtin Inc. opened offices for
business at 11 West 42 Street. Burtin The Cell model traveled to Edinburgh
left Fortune in November. Burtin gave before returning to New York.
lectures about "Integration: The New
Discipline in Design" in several cities,
Chicago (the Bundscho Librar y) and Los
Angeles among them. Graphis printed
"Integration" as a short article. Burtin
teamed with writer Lawrence Lessing to
describe the seminal wartime gunner y
manuals project for the OSS.
1959
The Pratt Institute named Burtin
professor and chair of Department of
Visual Communications. He organized
and chaired Typography USA confer-
ence, New York. The Cell exhibit
arrived in London to become a televi-
sion set for two BBC science specials,
"What is Life?" Shell Oil's film unit
filmed it in the BBS studio and
dedicated the film to the Royal Society.
1962
Burtin designed a spread in Comment 200 publication
using Ezra Stoller's time-lapse photography from the Union
Carbide Atom. Burtin's touring exhibit and booklet Visual
Aspects of Science exhibit included work for four major
clients: Kodak, IBM, Upjohn and Union Carbide.