The Industrial Designer of The Mural Wall at the Korean War Memorial Reminds Us to Never Forget SD Vets Magazine had a chance to sit down with Visionary industrial designer Louis Nelson. The designer conceived and spent five years creating the Korean War Veterans Memorial mural in Washington, D.C. — a striking, unforgettable granite mural featuring the faces of those who served. Now, Nelson releases Mosaic: War Monument Mystery (Publicity Launch: November 11, 2021; Original Trade Paperback; ISBN: 978-1098366124), and examines how this war affected him and its veterans― then and now―leading to his design of its mural wall and a new addition. Designed as a counterpoint to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Nelson’s mural wall vibrantly honors the men and women who fought in America’s “Forgotten War.” In tandem with Frank Gaylord’s haunting steel sculptures, the wall forms a lasting tribute to both those who gave their lives and those who survived the brutal first salvo of the Cold War. SDVM: Tell us about yourself and your career as an internationally recognized,award-winning industrial designer and artist, and now author. Nelson: My career actually started in fourth or fifth grade at PS 166. I designed covers for my book reports. The assignment was simply to read books and write about them. A book report, but I decided my reports also needed covers. I can’t tell you why. I just did it. My teacher, Mrs. Flynn, liked the covers so much that she displayed them on the hallway bulletin boards. She said I’d get extra credit if I read more books, so I made more book covers, the likes of Robinson Crusoe and The Call of the Wild.
architect was on the phone. It seemed I had been waiting for this call my whole life. I’m invited to meet the Board. I blocked out a number of different directions to discuss. Finally, I decided to tell the group how this war affected my life and the decisions I made when I entered college, my design education, and the subsequent steps of my life—being in ROTC, the Army, learning to fly a helicopter, sent to West Germany when a wall was built in Berlin, effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis, returning to civilian life, graduate school and some of the highlights of my design career... SDVM: In MOSAIC, you discuss your personal process and intentions in designing the mural wall; please expand on the intricacies, motivations and controversies that accompany the building of memorials, especially those commemorating war. Nelson: There are four classic ways of commemorating service—three were already present on the National Mall. One is a representation of a great leader and a remembrance of a tragic and bloody war. Certainly, that is Lincoln and the Civil War. Another, like the one in my old neighborhood square—a list of names of the dead, an honor roll etched in black granite. That’s the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. The third is a significant abstract symbol reflecting an individual, as is the obelisk for the Washington Monument and the Revolutionary War. The fourth way, the most universal, yet different and contrasting to the other three while touching the hearts of all families... a reflection of the person, a photograph of a loved one, in the place of honor at home, on your sideboard or your mantelpiece for all to see when you have visitors. This mural would be the Nation’s Mantelpiece.
SDVM: Your memoir MOSAIC: WAR MONUMENT MYSTERY details your industrial design work, notably the mural wall you designed for the Korean War Memorial in Washington, DC. How did you get involved in the assignment?
SDVM: When designing the memorial,what is the significance of the material sand technology used? How does the technology at the time differ from the tools you use today?
Nelson: Forty years and three months after the invasion of South Korea, they called. It was an early Autumn morning in 1990. Bill Lecky, a Washington, DC,
Nelson: I asked Coldspring’s team to produce a number of samples showing the variety of sizes of the “mezzotint dots” and the depth of the engraved
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WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / NOVEMBER 2021
