MALCOLM GREAR

www.mgrear.com

risd connection: Professor Emeritus, Graphic Design

professional practice: CEO of Malcolm Grear Designers, a well-established design studio in Providence, RI, with a reputation that far exceeds its size.

breaking in: "As a kid growing up in Kentucky, I thought art was the label on a Cloverene salve tin or a magazine cover by Norman Rockwell," Grear says with a wry smile. Having come of age in a rural farming community where people learned to make do with what they had, the designer attributes his fundamental values and approach to life to those early years. Much to his surprise, he also discovered that his upbringing gave him a natural predisposition toward design.

the road to risd: After high school Grear joined the Navy, where he trained as an aviation metalsmith, a skill that would subsequently gain him entrée to the Art Academy of Cincinnati. There, Grear immersed himself in a multidisciplinary array of art and design courses and learned that "education engages emotion as well as reason." Returning to Kentucky in 1958, "my teachers thought I was a sculptor, I thought they thought I was a photographer, but I knew I wanted to be a graphic designer," Grear says. Since moving north to begin teaching at RISD in 1960, he has earned an international reputation as a leader in the field of design education and has received five honorary doctorates. "I don't--indeed can't--teach students to be designers," he says, "but I can and do teach attitudes and strategies that help them become designers."

making it: Since establishing Malcolm Grear Designers (MGD) in 1960, the professor has built it into a highly respected firm known for its clean lines and clarity of vision. Among Grear's goals for his studio are to create meaningful work that is fresh, but enduring, and that combines strength with elegance. MGD has done memorable identity work for a wide range of clients, from the Metropolitan Opera to the Presbyterian Church USA, the US Department of Health & Human Services and Sonesta International Hotels. It has also produced award-winning print design work for Scientific American, the Guggenheim Museum, The RISD Museum, the National Gallery, Harvard University, Emory University, Hallmark Cards, the Veterans Administration and a host of other clients. In the realm of environmental graphics, the studio has designed communication and sign systems for the Mayo Clinic, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, King Khalid City and the MBTA, along with exhibitions for a number of museums. But the high point thus far was when MGD was selected from 500 firms to design the "Look of the Games" for the 1996 Centennial Olympics in Atlanta, GA. The studio was also chosen to design the 31 sports pictograms, the relay torch, safety lantern, traveling cauldron, the medals, and a commemorative poster. Grear, who believes his small studio was chosen "because of our record-- because we respect tradition and avoid novelty," commented at the time: "It doesn't get much better than this. This has got to be one of the highest honors for a design firm."

discoveries: (1)"Design - like music, language, mathematics, art, science (curiosity) and the rest - is part of the structure of the mind.... Done by nature with blind but dazzling elegance and by us with human purpose, design is no mere cultural confection; it is in us." (2) "I am a lucky man. Not by design, but through design, I have gained a life of friendships, respectful affections, delightful collaborations - all born of my work, which in itself, in its daily texture and visual diversity, brings pleasure to my soul."