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 Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

(CBS) in his 40 years with the network.

Biography

Early life and education

Dorfsman was born in 1918 on the Lower East Side of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and moved as a child to

the Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

. His parents were Jewish immigrants from Poland. Dorfsman attended Theodore Roosevelt High School, graduating in 1935. Dorfsman had wanted to attend

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

and study

bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classificat ...

there, but was unable to afford the tuition. He chose to attend Cooper Union, where he received a four-year scholarship and graduated in 1939. Dorfsman served on Cooper Union's board of directors for many years.Heller, Steven
"Lou Dorfsman, Design Chief at CBS, Dies at 90"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'', October 25, 2008. Accessed October 26, 2008.

Early career

After graduation, his design jobs included making displays for the 1939 New York World's Fair.

World War II

Dorfsman served in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, using his design skills.

With CBS

Dorfsman was hired in 1946 as art director for the

CBS Radio Network CBS News Radio, formerly known as CBS Radio News and historically known as the CBS Radio Network, is a radio network that provides news to more than 1,000 radio stations throughout the United States. The network is owned by Paramount Global. ...

. Dorfsman's designs were described by ''

'' as featuring "clear typography, simple slogans and smart illustration". He commissioned work from portraitist

Feliks Topolski Feliks Topolski RA (14 August 1907 – 24 August 1989) was a Polish expressionist painter and draughtsman working primarily in the United Kingdom. Biography Feliks Topolski was born on 14 August 1907 in Warsaw, Poland. He studied in the Acade ...

and painter

Ben Shahn Ben Shahn (September 12, 1898 – March 14, 1969) was an American artist. He is best known for his works of social realism, his left-wing political views, and his series of lectures published as ''The Shape of Content''. Biography Shahn was bor ...

. After William Golden died in 1959, Dorfsman was named creative director of CBS Television. By 1964, he was selected as the director of design for all of CBS and was later promoted to senior vice president and creative director for marketing communications and design in 1968. In this role he maintained creative control over the network's use of the CBS Eye logo to its proprietary CBS Didot typeface. ''The Times'' credited the "cleverness and subtle beauty of his advertisements" with drawing viewers to the network's news and entertainment programs. The print advertising Dorfsman created for CBS created a sense of urgency for the network's news and public affairs programming. A full-page newspaper ad for the series ''Of Black America'' showed a

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

man in black and white, with half his face painted with the stars and stripes of the United States flag. A newspaper ad for '' The Warren Report: A CBS News Inquiry in Four Parts'' showed a hand holding the

John F. Kennedy assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wi ...

's " magic bullet" with a headline stating that "This is the bullet that hit both

President Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until assassination of Joh ...

and Governor Connally. Or did it?" Advertising of CBS News coverage of the 1972 presidential election described CBS News anchorman

Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. (November 4, 1916 – July 17, 2009) was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the ''CBS Evening News'' for 19 years (1962–1981). During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the mo ...

as having been "Re-elected the Most Trusted Man in America". Dorfsman oversaw design of annual reports for CBS and created promotional commemorative volumes, including a 1969 limited-edition book with a cover embossed to resemble the lunar surface, after the first manned moon landing. He designed sets for Walter Cronkite's ''

CBS Evening News The ''CBS Evening News'' is the flagship evening television news program of CBS News, the news division of the CBS television network in the United States. The ''CBS Evening News'' is a daily evening broadcast featuring news reports, feature st ...

'' and for the ''

CBS Morning News The ''CBS Morning News'' is an American early-morning news broadcast presented weekdays on the CBS television network. The program features late-breaking news stories, national weather forecasts and sports highlights. Since 2013, it has been anc ...

''. In

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, Dorfsman was responsible for all of the building's graphics, designating the type, design and spacing for wall clocks, elevator buttons, and elevator inspection stickers. He designed a , design called '' Gastrotypographicalassemblage'' for the building's cafeteria that listed all of the foods offered to patrons in hand-milled

wood type In letterpress printing, wood type is movable type made out of wood. First used in China for printing body text, wood type became popular during the nineteenth century for making large display typefaces for printing posters, because it was l ...

. Dorfsman considered this work to be "his magnum opus, his gift to the world". The work has now been installed in a building on the Hyde Park campus of

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 firs ...

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 Fran ...

. Dorfman retired from CBS in November 1987 to establish his own studio. The responsibilities for advertising, which had previously been handled in-house under Dorfsman's supervision, were transferred to Backer, Spielvogel, Bates. Dorfsman died at age 90 on October 22, 2008 in

Roslyn, New York Roslyn ( ) is a village in the Town of North Hempstead in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is the Greater Roslyn area's anchor community. The population was 2,770 at the 2010 census. History Ros ...

of congestive heart failure.

Honors and recognition

In 1978, Dorfsman was recognized as a medalist by the

AIGA 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 ...

, "awarded to individuals in recognition of their exceptional achievements, services or other contributions to the field of design and visual communication". He was awarded the TDC Medal by the

Type Directors Club The Type Directors Club (TDC) is an international organization devoted to typography and type design, founded in 1946 in New York City. TDC believes that type drives culture, and that culture drives type—and is dedicated to cataloging, showcas ...

in 1995. The 1988 book ''Dorfsman & CBS'' by Dick Hess and Marion Muller covered his more than 40 years with the network.Brown, Patricia Leigh
"IN SHORT: NONFICTION; HIS DAYS AT BLACK ROCK"
''

'', March 13, 1988. Accessed October 27, 2008.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dorfsman, Louis 1918 births 2008 deaths American graphic designers AIGA medalists CBS people People from the Lower East Side People from the Bronx Cooper Union alumni American people of Polish-Jewish descent United States Army personnel of World War II