Malcolm Grear

“Design is about doing; it is an act, a process.”

“(A logo is) A simple tool, like a hammer: it has a straight forward function…Keep it simple.”

Malcolm Grear is responsible for countless logo designs and his design studio carries on his design ideals to this day.
“As a kid growing up in Kentucky, I thought art was a label on a Cloverine salve tin or a magazine cover by Norman Rockwell. I had no idea about design, much less graphic design. Yet, life (and my nature?) led me into this field; I became, unavoidably, a graphic designer and have never wished to be anything else.”  He started off enlisting in the navy where he trained in aviation and as a metalsmith. He returned home to attend the Art Academy of Cincinnati where he did sculpture and gathered influence from "the first generation of graphic designers in this country: sculptors, painters, and printmakers who were also designers and teachers." 

He began to teach at Rhode Island School of Design in 1960, the same here he created his own design studio, Malcolm Grear Designs. He wrote a book, Inside/Outside: From the Basics to the Practice of Design, in which his philosophy is exposed. Basically, it teaches his philosophy to look inside to understand the whole, therefore being able to reiterate something through a logo or other design. He is said to "deftly and sparingly capture the essence of his subject matter." Malcom Grear and his company are responsible for countless familiar logos, such as the iconic logo of the Guggenheim Museum. To this day he travels lecturing at schools nationwide and has his work, as well as work from his studio displayed in galleries. Below are some pictures from Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. 

http://www.mgrear.com/