Noel Martin (April 19, 1922 – February 23, 2009) was an American

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

er.

Biography

Noel Martin was born on April 19, 1922, in

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, Ohio, and moved to Cincinnati when he was a boy. In the 1940s, he studied drawing, painting, and printmaking at the

Art Academy of Cincinnati The Art Academy of Cincinnati is a private college of art and design in Cincinnati, Ohio, accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design. It was founded as the McMicken School of Design in 1869, and was a department of the U ...

, where he later became an instructor. His education was interrupted by World War II, when he spent time in the Air Force working in camouflage. He was self-taught in typography and design, which were his main activities for the bulk of his career. Martin worked as a freelance graphic designer and art director. His clients included Champion Papers, Federated Department Stores, Xomox Corporation, Dreyfus Corporation, '' The New Republic'' magazine,

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, and many other industrial, educational, and cultural organizations. In 1947, he became the first graphic designer for the Cincinnati Art Museum. In that role, he worked on the museum's first logo, graphics, installations, and put him at the forefront of the movement to simplify and remove the clutter from catalogs of all varieties—from industrial parts catalogs to art museum catalogs. Later, he taught at the

and was adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati, and he had major one-man exhibitions in the United States and Canada. His work was included in the exhibition, "Four American Designers", at the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, in 1953, and in a one-man exhibition at the

American Institute of Graphic Arts The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. T ...

in 1958. In 1971, he was the first Cincinnati artist to exhibit at the Contemporary Arts Center after its relocation in 1970, where he exhibited geometric paintings. Foreign exhibitions have included those of the U.S. Information Agency in Europe, Latin America, and the U.S.S.R., and also at the Gutenberg Museum, Mainz; Musee d'Art Moderne, Paris; and the Grafiska Institute, Stockholm. Martin's work is represented in public collections in New York, Boston, Washington, Cincinnati, and Amsterdam. He lectured at the Smithsonian, the Library of Congress, Aspen Design Conference, and schools and organizations throughout the country. Among his awards are the Art Directors Medal, Philadelphia, 1957, and the Sachs Award, Cincinnati, 1973.

Death and legacy

Martin died of leukemia on February 23, 2009. His archive is housed at the University of Cincinnati.

References

External links

''A Designer's Designer'', an analysis of Noel Martin's work by Allon SchoenerNoel Martin Web PageFinding Aid for Noel Martin papers
Archives and Rare Books Library, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio American graphic designers 1922 births 2009 deaths Art Academy of Cincinnati alumni Art Academy of Cincinnati faculty {{graphic-designer-stub