Rudolph de Harak – Graphic Designer – Richard Poulin
Rudolph de Harak – Graphic Designer: Rational Simplicity / ISBN 9780500025383 / large 408-page hardback, 8.5 x 12 inches, published in 2022 by Thames & Hudson
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“Rudy de Harak is a solid link between American and Swiss modernism. He was an exemplar of minimalist form with a conceptual content. A book on his life and work is sorely needed and long overdue.” ― Steven Heller
The first major publication on the life and work of America’s celebrated mid-century modern graphic designer Rudolph de Harak.
Rudolph de Harak (1924–2002) is one of the most influential graphic designers of the mid-twentieth century. This beautifully produced, comprehensive monograph is devoted to this fascinating and significant figure and provides an in-depth account of de Harak’s life and work.
From his early years in Los Angeles to his success as a design consultant and educator in New York City, de Harak brought inventiveness to everything he designed, from record covers to book jackets, from furniture to exhibitions. De Harak’s work was influenced by early modernist masters, such as Will Burtin, Gyo¨rgy Kepes, Alvin Lustig, and Max Bill, as well as by the rigor, simplicity, and rationalism of the International Style, Abstract Expressionism, Op Art, and Pop Art.
Organized chronologically into six chapters that cover de Harak’s life and career, each supported by sidebars on the designers, architects, and art movements that have influenced his work, Rudolph de Harak Graphic Designer documents de Harak’s pioneering and prolific fifty-year career in graphic, experiential, industrial, and furniture design for a wide range of clients, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cummins engine company, McGraw Hill publishing, and many others.
534 color illustrations
