In the early 1970s, the editors of the Harvard Business Review, received a critical letter from Edward Tufte, scolding its design director – me – as basically incompetent in designing intelligent diagrams for the journal’s audience. He introduced himself as an expert and included his book as example of good design. It was the first […]
History
My Birthplace
I was born in the village of Plagwitz, close to Löwenberg, in Germany, now Lwówek Śląski in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship in Poland. Members of my family were evacuated in February of 1945 to escape the onslaught of Russian troops, ending up and finding refuge with in-laws at the Dutch/German border. The Löwenberg area became […]
Looking for Belonging
Being Abandoned – Being at Home Christmas 1944 is the moment which signals the beginning of my growing sense of abandonment. It is the last holiday, which my parents, sister and I would spend together. Right thereafter, my father, as general practitioner in medicine, was called to the “Volkssturm”, a German national militia established during […]
Life in the 1960’s
Reasons for Visiting the USA Working for Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, the design staff had to respond to the advertising campaigns for medications that were produced on the premises under licenses for American Cyanamid, Lederle, and others. These corporations asked us to use their promotional materials for the European market. A very distinct problem emerged; physicians […]
Reasons for Visiting the USA
Working for Chemie Grünenthal GmbH, the design staff had to respond to the advertising campaigns for medications that were produced on the premises under licenses for American Cyanamid, Lederle, and others. These corporations asked us to use their promotional materials for the European market. A very distinct problem emerged; physicians in Germany, Switzerland, France and […]
Profile: Kunstschule Alsterdamm, Hamburg
Kunstschule Alsterdamm, one of the first new schools in Germany after WW II, established primarily as a concentration for the training professional graphic designers, was founded in 1946 by Gerd F. Setzke, a graphic designer, in Hamburg. Its first location was on Alsterdamm Boulevard, which was later renamed Ballindamm, named after Albert Ballin, a German […]
Alsterdamm Boot Camp
My first weeks at the school were scary. Looking around, I could not find anyone who started as lowly as I did. Many students came from very sophisticated high schools. Some had already semesters of art or design education behind them. I lacked all of their skills. For the first two semesters I was in […]
Biography
Dietmar R. Winkler, educated in design in Hamburg, Germany, is professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. He believes that design theory cannot be separated from evolving contemporary and future professional practices. He was director of the Institute of Design at IIT, the director of the School of Art and Design at the University […]