52 Facts About Will Burtin

Will Burtin was a graphic designer from Cologne, Germany, known for interrelating design and scientific concepts within his exhibits.

Will Burtin was an influential designer, educator, and theorist in Germany and the United States.

Will Burtin arrived in the United States in 1939 after fleeing Nazism in Germany.

Will Burtin designed many exhibits for companies, such as Eastman Kodak, IBM, the Smithsonian, Mead Paper, Union Carbide, Herman Miller Furniture, and United States Information Agency.

Will Burtin received many awards and recognition for his work including a gold medal from AIGA.

Will Burtin was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1974.

Will Burtin died on January 18,1972, in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Will Burtin was born in Cologne, Germany, to August and Gertrud Burtin on January 27,1908.

Will Burtin's education was interrupted early during World War I when German armies took over his elementary school for cavalry barracks.

Will Burtin never graduated high school; instead, Will Burtin started studying topography at Handwerkskammer Koln.

Will Burtin worked for Knoll on exhibitions at GeSoLei in Dusseldorf.

In 1927, Will Burtin opened his own design studio in Cologne, in which he created booklets, posters, type books, exhibitions, displays, advertising, and movies for German, French, and other clients.

In 1930, Will Burtin started teaching in Berlin, where he met art student Hilde Munk.

Will Burtin was able to decline early Nazi attempts to hire him.

Will Burtin always claimed that his work schedule was already too hectic to take on another responsibility.

However, in 1937, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels made an official request for Will Burtin to become the Ministry's Director of Design.

Will Burtin cited his backlog of private clients in order to buy time.

Will Burtin asked him to sponsor the couple's immigration into the United States.

Meanwhile, back in Germany, Will Burtin was called to Berlin again, this time to meet Adolf Hitler in person.

Will Burtin tried disqualifying himself from working in the Nazi Party by mentioning that his wife Hilde was Jewish.

Unfortunately for Will Burtin, Hitler replied that his wife was not an issue and his first assignment would be to create an exhibit foretelling the impacts of Nazi culture.

Again trying to buy time, Will Burtin asked for a short vacation to think it over.

Will Burtin was honoured, he replied, to be considered for this high-ranking post but he needed this vacation to be well rested prior to taking up his duties for the Nazi Party.

Will and Hilde Burtin had already decided under no circumstances would they work for the Nazi Party.

Will Burtin was hired for his first job with Munk Aeronautical Laboratory, which was Hilde's cousin's Max Munk's laboratory.

In 1939, Will Burtin began teaching communication and advanced design at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY and later was named chairman of the Department of Visual Communication in 1959.

In 1943, Will Burtin was drafted into the United States Army and assigned to the Office of Strategic Services.

Will Burtin was assigned to create gun manuals for the US Air Force and Army Air Force.

Will Burtin was recruited for the position of the Art Director, in which he remained from 1945 to 1949.

Fortune did allow Will Burtin to do freelance work on the side which led to his partnership with the Upjohn Company and many others, such as Eastman Kodak, IBM, the Smithsonian, Mead Paper, Union Carbide, Herman Miller Furniture, and United States Information Agency.

Will Burtin was the designer and consultant on many of these clients' projects.

Will Burtin taught advertising art briefly as a visiting instructor at Black Mountain College in 1946, part of staff roster that included Josef and Anni Albers, Jacob and Gwendolyn Knight Lawrence, Leo Lionni, Leo Amino, Jean Varda, and others.

In 1950, Will Burtin started working at the Parsons School of Design, leading AIGA to name him a director with in the Institute.

Will Burtin used personal thoughts and perspectives of the average citizen from Kalamazoo in this exhibit.

In 1962, Will Burtin was able to gain Eastman Kodak as another major client.

Will Burtin's exhibit was showcased at Union Carbide's headquarters in New York City and represented the physics of nuclear energy.

Will Burtin took the position as art director of Upjohn Company's publication Scope, while still art directing for Fortune, but did leave Fortune the same year.

Will Burtin received the Art Directors Club medal in 1939,1941,1955 and 1958.

Will Burtin received the AMA award in 1958 for his exhibit of The Cell.

In 1971, Will Burtin was awarded a gold medal from AIGA for all his successful contributions to the field of design.

Will Burtin was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1974.

Will Burtin went on to merge design theory with education and technology.

Will Burtin focused on the relationship between spatial forms and their functions.

Examples of Will Burtin's work include "The Cell", "The Genes in Action", and other processes or microstructures that required a unique understanding of both art and science.

Will Burtin's work was publicized in world press and a variety of scientific journals.

In 1930, Will Burtin started teaching in Berlin, where he met art student Hilde Munk.

Will and Hilda Burtin spent most of their lives dedicated to design and typography.

Will Burtin was fifty years old at the time her death; Will and a friend stood by her side as she passed.

Will Burtin kept this a secret until he passed and it wasn't until seeing a copy of her mother's death certificate did Carol realize her father's effort to shield the sad news from her.

In January 1961, Will Burtin remarried the graphic designer Cipe Pineles, a long time family friend.

Will Burtin died on January 18,1972, in Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

Will Burtin's doctor determined it was possible Hilda Will Burtin died of the same cancer, which was unnamed at the time of her death.