Please join the SEGD San Francisco chapter and AIGA San Francisco Thursday June 8th, 2023 from 6-9pm for a special evening with Richard Poulin discussing his new book, Rational Simplicity: Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Designer. Richard is an SEGD fellow and award-winning designer, educator, author, and artist. His career spans forty years in graphic, environmental, interior, and exhibition design where he divides his time between professional practice and academia. In his new book, Richard celebrates his mentor and unsung hero of mid-century modern design through featuring images of his work along with rarely shared collages, paintings, and remembrances from friends, family, students, and colleagues. Inspired by modernism, Rudolph de Harak was one of the most influential American graphic design pioneers. His design work included everything from album covers, book jackets, and branding to furniture, exhibitions, and museums, often incorporating innovative and experimental photographic techniques and exploring abstraction, geometry, and color. With an early career beginning in Los Angeles to working as a design consultant and educator in New York City, de Harak’s clients include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Columbia Records, Esquire magazine, McGraw-Hill Publishing, and the Cummins Engine Company, among many others. Rational Simplicity: Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Designer is the first publication to document de Harak’s career.

“Rudy fully adopted the philosophy behind [Modernism] and accepted the idea that design could change the world. In many ways, Rudy was more like an architect than a graphic designer. His feeling for and understanding of materials, recognizing what they could do and how they could be joined, greatly absorbed his interest.” —Tom Geismar, founding partner of Chermayeff & Geismar, in the book’s Introduction

 

Event Details

This event will take place the evening of June 8th at the Haworth Showroom in The Mills Building located at 220 Bush Street, Suite 975, approximately 2 blocks from Montgomery BART Station.

The book will be available for purchase at the event. Light snacks and beverages will be served.

Schedule:

6:00 p.m.–6:45p.m. Check-in and networking*

7:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Presentation and discussion

8:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m. Book signing and reception

*Please arrive by 6:45pm to attend this event due to building security.

SF Design Week attendees will be entered into door prize raffles for a copy of the book!

We would like to thank the Haworth San Francisco Showroom for generously hosting us for this event!

 

Ticket information

Registration is free for SEGD Members!

We are also offering an opportunity to pre-order Richard's book with a 15% discount off list price, available for pick up at the event.

Pre-orders will close on Tuesday, May 30. You must be present at the event to receive your book.

Register and pre-order your book today!

 

About Richard Poulin

Richard Poulin is a designer, educator, author, and artist. Throughout his career he has focused on a generalist approach to all aspects of design, including graphic, environmental, interior, and exhibition design, dividing his time between professional practice and academia. He was Design Director and Managing Partner of Poulin + Morris Inc., a New York City-based multidisciplinary design consultancy he co-founded in 1989 with Douglas Morris. As a highly-respected educator, he was an adjunct professor at Cooper Union and the School of Visual Arts for over two decades and a recipient of a research grant in design history from the Graham Foundation for the Advanced Studies in Fine Art. Richard is also a recipient of a Fellow from the Society for Experiential Graphic Design (SEGD), the profession’s highest honor; and his work is in the permanent design collections of the Denver Museum of Art, Letterform Archive, Library of Congress, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). He is the author of several books on graphic design, typography, and design history which have been translated into eight languages and used by students and practitioners worldwide. Richard’s new book, a monograph on the life and work of Rudolph de Harak—Rational Simplicity: Rudolph de Harak, Graphic Designer—traces the rich and varied career of one of the masters of American mid-century modernist graphic design and was released in the Fall of 2022 by Thames & Hudson (London). As an artist, his most recent solo exhibition, entitled “Visual Essays: Elemental Singularities” was at the Brian Marki Fine Art Gallery in Palm Springs, California. His fine art has also been exhibited throughout the United States and is in the collections of several private collectors.

Richard lives in Palm Springs, California. You can follow his work or contact him on Instagram @richardpoulin or richardpoulin.net