DESKTOP

director of Anspach Grossman
Portugal and in the late 1970s
he joined Pentagram, became an
associate and helped to establish
the New York office. In 1982, he
returned to his own private practice
and in 1991 returned to teaching
as a senior critic in graphic design
at Yale University. Although he
retains an interest in education and
graphic design, his art, installations,
furniture and ‘Modern Living’
projects have generated exhibitions
and commissions all over the world.
His first solo exhibition was at the
Fun Gallery, New York in 1984. His
experimental furniture has been
produced by Neotu in Paris and by
Arredaesse, Driade and Alchimia
in Milan. His work is in many public
and private collections, including
the Museum of modern Art in New
York, the Art Institute of Chicago,
the Gewerbemuseum in Basel and
the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in
Montreal. He describes himself as an
artist whose subjects is design and
culture. Dan Friedman died on 6th of
July 1995
(35)
Dan Friedman
Peter Rea: Could we begin by
talking about how you see the
graphic design profession today?
Dan Friedman: For more than
25 years I’ve had love-hate
relationship with our profession.
I will defend it with pride and
passion, but I will also be critical
– even occasionally cynical. I’ve
been at its centre, but I feel
more comfortable playing at its
margins. It is a profession which
involves a great deal of drudgery
and concern about minutiae that
can only be measured in quarter
points and millimetres. Graphic
design has always defined its
focus in narrow terms – in ways
that may stimulate graphic
designers into a frenzy but
mean nothing to the rest of
society. When we try to extend
our reach, as with fantasies