Tibor Kalman (
July 6,
1949–
May 2,
1999) was an influential American
graphic designer of Hungarian origin, well-known for his work as editor-in-chief of
Colors magazine.
Kalman was born in
Budapest and became a
U.S. resident in 1956, after he and his family fled
Hungary to escape the
Soviet invasion. He later attended
NYU, dropping out after one year of Journalism classes. In the 1970s Kalman worked at a small
New York City bookstore that eventually became
Barnes & Noble. He later became the supervisor of their in-house design department. In 1979 Kalman,
Carol Bokuniewicz, and
Liz Trovato started the design firm
M&Co, which did corporate work for such diverse clients as the
Limited Corporation, the
New Wave music group
Talking Heads, and
Restaurant Florent in New York City's Meatpacking District. Kalman also worked as creative director of
Interview magazine in the early 1990s.
Kalman became founding editor-in-chief of the
Benetton-sponsored
Colors magazine in 1990. In 1993, Kalman closed M&Co and moved to
Rome, to work exclusively on the magazine. Billed as 'a magazine about the rest of the world',
Colors focused on
multiculturalism and global awareness. This perspective was communicated through bold graphic design,
typography, and juxtaposition of photographs and doctored images, including a series in which highly recognizable figures such as the
Pope and
Queen Elizabeth were depicted as racial minorities. Kalman remained the main creative force behind
Colors, until the onset of
non-Hodgkins lymphoma forced him to leave in 1995, and return to New York.
In 1997, Kalman re-opened M&Co and continued to work until his death in 1999, in
Puerto Rico, shortly before a retrospective of his graphic design work, entitled
Tiborocity opened its U.S. tour at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. A book about Kalman and M&Co's work,
Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist, was published by Princeton Architectural Press in 1999.
Today, the influence of M&Co is still strong, both as a result of its work and that of the many designers, like
Stefan Sagmeister, Stephen Doyle,
Alexander Isley, Scott Stowell, and Emily Oberman, who worked there and went on to start their own design studios, also in New York City.
Tibor Kálmán was a member of
Alliance Graphique International (AGI).
Until his death (1999), Mr. Kalman was married to the illustrator and author
Maira Kalman.
See also
