Two Designer Timeline

1960—

Northeastern University 2022

Design by Grace Goers

1928—

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon Irma Boom

1908

The Basel School of Design is established in Switzerland. Hermann Baur, Hans Peter Baur,

and Franz Bräuning are the architects credited with the design.

Akzidenz-Grotesk is designed by Berthold Type Foundry.

1913Constructivism begins with Vladimir Tatlin’s non-figurative abstract sculptures, which he called constructivist works.

World War I begins.

1919

A school called the Bauhaus is conceptualized by

Walter Gropius, who designed the Weimar campus.

The League of Nations is created.

1928

Barbara Stauffacher

Solomon was born in December, 1928 in San Francisco, California.

1929

The Museum of Modern Art is created with its founding director as Alfred H. Barr, Jr. In 1939, MOMA moved out of a small apartment

and into this Midtown Manhattan building designed by Philip L. Goodwin. Later renovations were designed by Yoshio Taniguchi.

1929

In the same year, M.F. Agha is recruited by Conde Nast to be art director of Vogue, Vanity Fair, and House & Garden.

1938

Physicist Chester Carlson invents the first photocopier, although it is not commercially available until 1948.

1947Paul Rand publishes his book, Thoughts on Design. The above version is a first-edition copy designed by the author.

1956

Stauffacher

Solomon decides to study graphic design at the Basel School of Design. She is the first American to do so. Barbara studied under Armin Hofmann, who was instrumental in developing the Swiss International Style.

The works on this page are designed by Armin Hofmann while he taught at— and later ran—the Basel School of Design.

1957

Helvetica was developed in1957 by Max Miedinger and Eduard Hoffman, who was the director of the Haas Type Foundry. Tribute designed by Husmee Design Studio.

1960John F. Kennedy is elected President of the United States.

1960

Irma Boom is born in Lochem, Netherlands.

1962 1963

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon decides to move back to the United States after the election of JFK.

U.S. President John F. Kennedy is assassinated by Lee Harvey Oswald.

1966

Stauffacher Solomon designed the program guide for the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art for many years throughout the 60’s and 70’s. These three selections are from the 1966 program guide.

1967

In the late 1960s and 70s, depillarization and secularization become noticeable in the Netherlands.

1968Solomon is offered a position at landscape architect Larry Halprin’s studio. Sea Ranch is her first major project. She uses the broad architectural planes of the building as a canvas for supergraphics. She combined “Californian abstract expressionism with hard-edge Swiss graphics.”

1972

Pentagram is founded with five original partners on June 12, 1972 in London.

1981

Solomon earns a Master’s degree in architecture at University of California, Berkeley in 1981. Leading her to publish

her thesis, Green Architecture and The Agrarian Garden.

1981

Irma Boom interviews with Total Design for an internship in her third year, and is rejected for mixing too many sans serif typefaces.

1982

The Computer is named Time Magazine’s Man of the Year.

1987

Solomon designed the Regis Garden at the Walker Art Center’s Cowles Conservatory with Michael van Valkenburgh.

1987

In the same year, Irma Boom designs two specialedition books commissioned by the Dutch PTT during 1987 and 1988. The books celebrate special edition stamp designs, and also feature an index of the different postal cancellations used during those years. This set represents Irma Boom’s first published book design, and simultaneously, her first award-winning book design.

1990

British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web.

1991The Irma Boom Office is created, and immediately, Boom is commissioned by the CEO of SHV. Work on the SHV Thinkbook begins.

1996

After five years, the SHV Think Book is finally published. The book is over 2,000 pages long and without page numbers.

The SHV Think Book is nonchronological and entirely experiemental. The Book began with Boom being told

to “look for the unusual.” It was created with the editorial help of art historian Johan Pijnappel.

1998

Google is founded.

1999

Adobe InDesign is released on August 31, 1999.

2001

Irma Boom wins the Gutenberg Prize for her oeuvre.

2001

The Same Sex Marriage Act is put into effect in the Netherlands! The Dutch are the first to legalize gay marriage.

2006

Sheila Hicks: Weaving as Metaphor is published, later winning the medal for the most beautiful book in the world.

2007

The Great Recession begins.

2007

Barbara Stauffacher

Solomon completes the mixed-media piece titled, Califia Dressed to Kill

2010

Irma Boom: The Architecture of the Book is published.

2010

The New York Times profiled Boom in an article titled “A Small Book in a Big Career.”

Barbara Stauffacher

2013Solomon publishes her second book titled, Why? Why Not?

For Chanel’s 2013 exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, Boom is commissioned to create a textural book devoid of ink.

2013Each picture and text block is embossed into the paper; the printing technique was inspired by the emphemeral nature

of perfume. The book is designed to convey the essence of Chanel N°5 perfume specifically.

2020Stauffacher

Solomon creates a series of illustrations that will later be scaled to supergraphic size.

Some of the supergraphics from this collection of work are on view at the Palm Springs Art Museum.

This series is titled Breaking all the Rules.

Sources + Citations

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon. Barbara Stauffacher Solomon | The Cultural Landscape Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.tclf.org/barbara-stauffacher-solomon#:~:text=Born%20in%20San%20Francisco%2C%20Solomon,at%20the%20Basel%20 Art%20Institute.

Bint Photobooks on Internet. (2017, October 16). Nederlandse postzegels 1987/88: 2 volume set Dutch PTT books designed by Irma Boom. NEDERLANDSE POSTZEGELS 1987/88: 2 Volume Set Dutch PTT Books designed by Irma Boom. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from http:// bintphotobooks.blogspot.com/2017/10/nederlandse-postzegels-198788-2-volume.html

Butler, Cornelia (2010). Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. pp. 401–403.

Caldwell, K. (2019, November 15). A Barbara Stauffacher Solomon retrospective explores her lesser-known work. The Architect’s Newspaper. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https:// www.archpaper.com/2019/11/bobbie-stauffacher-solomon-retrospective/

Environmental Design Archives. CED Archives Blog. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://archives.ced.berkeley.edu/collections/solomon-barbara-stauffacher

Long, M. (2021, March 1). Barbara Stauffacher Solomon: “I designed because I needed to eat”. Design Week. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/22-28-february-2021/barbara-stauffacher-solomon/

Miltenburg, A. (2014). Feature: Reputations: Irma Boom. Eye Magazine. Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-irma-boom

Rawsthorn, Alice (2007-03-18). [“Reinventing the look (even smell) of a book”](https://www. nytimes.com/2007/03/18/style/18iht-DESIGvN19.4945906.html). *The New York Times.*

Sheila Hicks. Bard Graduate Center. (n.d.). Retrieved November 27, 2022, from https://www. bgc.bard.edu/exhibitions/exhibitions/35/sheila-hicks

Design by Grace Goers