Ralph Coburn was born in Minneapolis, MN in 1923. His father taught romance languages at the University of Minnesota. In 1926 the family moved to Miami, FL, where his parents founded a private school. The Coburn School was run by Ralph’s father who spoke six languages, while his British born mother who had lived in […]
Year: 2022
Carl Zahn
When I became an associate at Leverett A. Peters, Associates, Carl Zahn dropped in one day unannounced, just to see what was going on in this new studio on Boston’s Boylston Street, across from the Public Library. Carl Zahn’s professionalism was highly regarded. He knew the best set of printers from which one could choose […]
Robert Mann
Over the years, at MIT, I found that especially the more seasoned faculty members were always more open for discussion. One did not have to be enrolled in their classes. While Professor Edgerton was always available for a lively chat or the openness with which he showed his photographic work or provided descriptions of his […]
Charles Ives
One of my early discoveries was the musical work of Charles Ives (1874–1954), an American modernist composer of classical music. Oliver (Howie) Kline was a young designer who was hired by our office. He came from a family of opera and music performers, took me to some of the premiere performances of Ives’ work at […]
Aesthetics:
Not Value Collisions, but an Invigorating Humanistic and Democratic Value Dialogue “If an ox had hands and could paint a picture, his god would look like an ox.”—Xenophanes of Colophon Aesthetics: ‘Pure’ and ‘Absolute’ or ‘Obsolete’. If one were to take Kenneth Clark’s analysis of John Ruskin’s nineteenth century concepts about art and aesthetics and […]
Indulgences
Got a call from Benedict XVI, you know “good old Joe, but call me Al, Ratzinger”, formerly John Paul’s second Attack-Rottweiler, now Papa. He wondered if you didn’t need some earthquake insurance for the trip to Italy. He mumbled something about indulgences. I asked, “Do you mean beer?” He explained: “Not in Italy. No, no. […]
Rip Van Winkler
The various roles of this story play in the shadow of the complex dynamics of their time, as collected in the chronicles of several German cities in the mid-20th century. Back then, there was a simple, average, basically contented young man named Rip Van Winkler. He was a good neighbor, who was always obedient and […]
Childhood Reflections
At the beginning of every festival season, in winter, there is a lot of loneliness surging up in me, no matter how hard I try to cover it up. I felt always abandoned, from childhood on, especially by my parents – my mother died early and left me unprotected to life; my father always felt, […]
Płakowice Castle
Płakowice Castle, is located in Plagwitz (Płakowice), Lower Silesia, which was German before 1945, and is now Polish. Plagwitz (Płakowice) is one of the oldest settlements, having been mentioned in the Register of Municipalities of Lower Silesia from 1217 onwards. In the history between competing and feudal families, the village changed ownership several times and […]
Music as a Guide
Music is full of phenomena which make up the construction of various styles and philosophical intentions of pieces when composed. So, why is it not at all possible to find parallels between the aural phenomena of music composition and the visual phenomena of typographic design, just to break away from the monotony of Bauhaus or […]