Thinking Kenneth Hiebert. 12 20 1930

"The goal of communication. It should not be confused with mere "effect". An effect may have an entertainment value which will detract from the expression if dominant"

Kenneth Hiebert was born in Minnesota on December 20, 1930. He received the B.A. degree in social studies from Bethel College, Kansas, in 1953. From 1959–64 he studied under Kurt Hauert, Armin Hofmann and Emil Ruder at the Allegemeine Gewerbeschule Basel in the “Fachklasse fuer Grafik” (Basel School of Design, Class for Graphic Design). He taught briefly at the School of Design, Basel, then at Carnegie Institute of Technology, and from 1966–1999 at what is now The University of the Arts where he was founding chairman of the graphic design department. He retired Professor Emeritus in May 1999. In Spring 2001 he held the Nierenberg Distinguished Chair in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, conducting research on the relation of interpretive visual kinetic imagery as an extension to composed, contemporary musical form. 

In 1973 he was Research Associate in the Arts at Yale University, leading an investigation of latent pattern in vernacular store fronts. He instigated the universal/Unique symposium and invitational exhibition at the University of the Arts in 1988. He received the Mary Lou Beitzel Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1990 and the Master Teacher Award of the national Graphic Design Education Association in 1991. Honorary degrees were awarded by the Maine College of Art in 2002 and the University of the Arts in 2013.

His books Graphic Design Processes, published in 1991 by Van Nostrand Reinhold, and Graphic Design Sources, published in 1998 by Yale University Press, present problem-solving processes by students and himself individually.

Commissioned projects range from extensive corporate identity work to books, posters, environmental graphics, and web site design. He worked on projects with Paul Rand at Westinghouse and IBM. Awards include AIGA 50 Best Books, AIGA Communication Graphics, AIGA/Philadelphia Awards of Excellence, New York Type Directors Club, Philadelphia Art Directors Club Gold Medal, and the Society of Typographic Arts. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia AIGA chapter and was elected a Fellow of the AIGA in 2001. 

His work has been published in the Carnegie Review, Print, ID, Graphis, Design Quarterly, Design Issues, Design USA, The Computer in Graphic Design, Contemporary Graphic Design, Meggs’ A History of Graphic Design and many others as well as in major design annuals. 

His photography, including multi-media presentations, has been exhibited in one-man and group shows. The photo collage series “Twelve Eclipses” based on Stonehenge was featured as part of Philadelphia’s Mythos Festival in 1991. His recent activity is centered around links of sound and imagery, combining video, still photography, abstract graphic form, and texts with modern classical music. This work was featured in the December 2000 Profile Intermedia conference in Bremen, Germany, and in an April 2001 exhibition, “concealing-revealing,” at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery of Carnegie Mellon University. A visual counterpart to George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children was first presented in a multimedia performance with Orchestra 2001, the Philadelphia-based contemporary music ensemble with which he was associated beginning 1994, in its first Kimmel Center Philadelphia concert in 2002. 

Texts and images are provided by Kenneth Hiebert