26: Georg Olden

For The Poster Boys’ first episode of 2017, designers Brandon Schaefer and Sam Smith look at the life and work of Georg Olden, one of the most prominent and influential black executives in the American advertising business. Olden designed and art directed countless television title cards for CBS television which embodied the most timeless qualities of modern graphic design, and additionally designed for the Office of Strategic Services before it became the CIA, for the conference that founded the United Nations, and became the first African American to design a stamp for the United States Postal Service. Also in this episode: a look in the Flat File at the poster campaigns for Sidney Lumet’s TV-industry satire NETWORK.

SHOW NOTES & LINKS

Alexander Girard: A Designer’s Universe (Vitra Design Museum) Hecho en Cuba: Cinema in the Cuban Graphics (Silvana Editoriale) Tove Jansson: Work and Love (Penguin UK) Sandy Dvore: A Career Retrospective at Art of the Title AIGA Medalist: Georg Olden Advertising Age: Meet One of the Pioneering Blacks in the Ad Agency William Nunally on Georg Olden History of Graphic Design: Georg Olden Encyclopedia.com - Georg Olden Art Directors Club: Georg Olden Breaks the Chain Steven Heller: The Eyes Have It Ebony Magazine: Georg Olden Georg Olden appears on “I’ve Got a Secret”

Music selections: “Bass on Titles” opening theme, clip from Sidney Lumet’s NETWORK.

Follow Brandon Schaefer at @seekandspeak, and Sam Smith at @samsmyth.

Special thanks to producer Adrian Cobb.