Passages: Designer Lou Dorfsman

For More Than 40 Years He Helped Shape The "Look" Of CBS

(CBS)  It happened this week ... Lou Dorfsman died at the age of 90.

Although you probably never heard his name, you certainly saw his work right here.

For more than 40 years, Dorfsman helped shape the image of CBS.

Lou was a pioneering art designer: the first to give a major American corporation a distinct "look," seen on everything from CBS promotional spots to ads.

He even helped design the interior of the network's landmark New York headquarters, the building now known as Black Rock.

No detail was too small or large for Lou Dorfsman to handle.

There was the CBS typeface … the official CBS stationery, complete with detailed directions covering just about everything …

… and we do mean EVERYTHING - right down to the tiny gray dot where the body of every letter was SUPPOSED to start.

Lou even designed a 40-foot-long assemblage which graced the wall of the CBS cafeteria for more than 20 years. It's now being painstakingly restored.

Lou retired in 1987 ... but to this day, Lou Dorfsman helps CBS look its best.






To view a video about the creation of Dorfsman's "Gastrotypographicalassemblage" and to make a donation to the CBS wall restoration, please visit:

The Center for Design Study
400 Trabert Avenue
Atlanta, GA 30309
[phone]
[e-mail]

[art2go]

Lou Dorfsman was a great legend in the graphic design industry. I was fortunate enough to have had the opportunity to work at CBS and in his design department (1980-84). He was a great person to had worked for and worked with. He will be missed.

[russlunn]

Sad news the great Lou Dorfsman has passed.
He really was legendary in the world of graphic design and was really funny sarcastic guy with a keen sense of the absurd in life and advertising. I only knew him briefly when I worked as crew on a documentary about his career sponsored by Kodak and Rochester Institute of Technolgy in the 80''s and I got to see more of his lifes work than his celebrated type design works he was a trendsetter....unlike any other. thanks for your inspiration Lou