''Gastrotypographicalassemblage'' (compound word: ''Gastro'' , ''typographical'' , ''assemblage'') is a work of art designed by

Lou Dorfsman Louis Dorfsman (April 24, 1918 – October 22, 2008) was an American graphic designer who oversaw almost every aspect of the advertising and corporate identity for the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) in his 40 years with the network. Biog ...

to decorate the

cafeteria A cafeteria, sometimes called a canteen outside the U.S., is a type of food service location in which there is little or no waiting staff table service, whether a restaurant or within an institution such as a large office building or school ...

Eero Saarinen Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...

CBS Building The CBS Building, also known as Black Rock, is the headquarters of the CBS broadcasting network at 51 West 52nd Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. The 38-story, building, the only skyscraper designed by Eero Saari ...

52nd Street 52nd Street is a -long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan, New York City. A short section of it was known as the city's center of jazz performance from the 1930s to the 1950s. Jazz center Following the repeal of ...

and

Sixth Avenue Sixth Avenue – also known as Avenue of the Americas, although this name is seldom used by New Yorkers, p.24 – is a major thoroughfare in New York City's borough of Manhattan, on which traffic runs northbound, or "uptown". It is commercial ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. As the senior vice president and creative director for marketing communications and design for CBS, Dorfsman was responsible for all aspects of the building's graphics, designating the type, design, and spacing for wall clocks, elevator buttons, and elevator inspection stickers. He designed what he called ''Gastrotypographicalassemblage'' for the building's cafeteria, using varied

typeface A typeface (or font family) is the design of lettering that can include variations in size, weight (e.g. bold), slope (e.g. italic), width (e.g. condensed), and so on. Each of these variations of the typeface is a font. There are list of type ...

s to list all of the foods offered to patrons in hand-milled wood type. The completed work was based on ideas conceived in the mid-1960s. The project was ultimately completed in 1966 with assistance from graphic designer

Herb Lubalin Herbert F. Lubalin (; March 17, 1918 – May 24, 1981) was an American graphic designer. He collaborated with Ralph Ginzburg on three of Ginzburg's magazines: ''Eros'', ''Fact'', and ''Avant Garde''. He designed the typeface, ITC Avant Garde, ...

, and Tom Carnase, who crafted the

typography Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing ( leading), and ...

from Dorfsman's original design. Dorfsman considered this work to be "his magnum opus, his gift to the world".Anwyl, Richard
"Rebuilding a Legacy: The Gastrotypographicalassemblage"
, AIGA, March 5, 2008. Accessed October 26, 2008. ''Gastrotypographicalassemblage'' was discarded in the early 1990s by CBS, but the work's nine panels were retrieved by designer Nick Fasciano. It was in an advanced state of disrepair, aggravated by improper storage. The piece was acquired by the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

-based Center for Design Study in the mid-2000s, which developed a program to raise the funds needed to support the restoration of the work of art. Funding goals to begin the restoration fell short, and efforts to restore the work did not begin at that time. Following the death of Lou Dorfsman in 2008, it was announced that

the Culinary Institute of America The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is a private culinary school with its primary campus in Hyde Park, New York, and branch campuses in St. Helena and Napa, California; San Antonio, Texas; and Singapore. The college, which was the first t ...

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Frankl ...

, would serve as the new home for ''Gastrotypographicalassemblage''. The college worked with Nick Fasciano to fund the restoration, and the work was put on public display for the first time starting in March 2014, when it was showcased in the Institute's new Marriott Pavilion and Conference Center in its Hyde Park campus, where it remains to this day.

References

{{Reflist American art Typography 1966 paintings Cultural history of New York City CBS Television Network The Culinary Institute of America

See also

References