“For design is about the making of things: things that are memorable and have presence in the world of the mind. It makes demands upon our ability both to consolidate information as knowledge and to deploy it imaginatively to creative purpose in the pursuit of fresh information.”
“To design is to plan and to organize, to order, to relate and to control. In short it embraces all means of opposing disorder and accident. Therefore it signifies a human need and qualifies man’s thinking and doing.”
“The essential function of our profession [design] in our society is to enhance and cultivate communications toward an easier understanding of ideas and complex problems, in the shortest possible time for higher visual and auditory retention of data.”
“To design is much more than simply to assemble, to order, or even to edit; it is to add value and meaning, to illuminate, to simplify, to clarify, to modify, to dignify, to dramatize, to persuade, and perhaps even to amuse. To design is to transform prose into poetry.”
Rochester, NY: RIT Carey Collection Design Archives
Visit: We met with Kari Horowicz, Archivist, and Stephen Galbraith, Assoc. Archivist.
The Cary collection is a rare book collection which tracks the history and development of typography. From cuneiform to present day. Books arranged on the shelf by type designer.
45,000 books plus they have half the archive of Herman Zapf (he taught there). The other half is in Germany.
They have a type collection. Among the most rare items, they have the “lost Gaudy” type font.
Archives – have the Paul Standard Papers. Designer. Corresppnded with all the major publishers of his day.
The have Ismar David designed books.
Middleton Book binders – have their reference collection. Speciman books. These were digitized by Karita in a project which made them available for free, but charged for a print. This contract is about to expire.
Discoveries: Graphic Design archives. They have 38 collections. All are listed on the website. Some have finding aids, and those that are digital are posted on the website as downloadable PDF files. The website is searchable.
Most of the collections are not catalogued to item level.