Meet the Pros: Bob Gill
Bob Gill is a graphic designer and illustrator that originally came from Brooklyn, NY. He attended the Philadelphia Museum School of Art from 1948 to 1951, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1951 and City College of New York from 1952 to 1955. After graduating he became a professional graphic designer. Along with Alan Fletcher and Colin Forbes, Gill created a design studio that later on inspired the creation of the Pentagram. They also started the Designers and Art Directors Association, D&AD. After leaving the partnership Gill worked on independent freelancing, began teaching, filmmaking and worked on creating books.
On October 08, 2013 Bob Gill came to City Tech to talk to the students. He talked about ignoring the culture of design. He told us not to create something that is expected, not to create something that everyone else is doing. He talk about the things he has done in his life. Like when he created a proposal for a peace monument in Times Square. He wanted a block of white marble with military junk collected from all over the world, piled 40 feet high and spray black. Gill talked about when he wrote and design Beatlemania, which became the largest multimedia musical up to that time on Broadway.
Examples of his work:
“You have to ignore what the culture is telling you what is good or bad. Not knowing how things should look like until you have something to say. The most interesting thing in graphic design is to solve the problem with the most original work. Change the boring problem to interesting problem. There are unlimited solutions.”
– Bob Gill
