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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Chris Pullman on What I've Learned: Design Observer (#6 is my Fave)

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Chris Pullman is the only person who can be said to have won not one but two of the highest possible honors from AIGA. The first was the Corporate Leadership Award, which the company he shaped, Boston public broadcasting network WGBH, won in 1985. The second was the AIGA Medal, which Pullman himself won in 2002.

Chris Pullman was a young teacher at the Yale School of Art when he was recruited by Ivan Chermayeff, who had just redesigned WGBH's logo, to take charge of the station's in-house design department. He joined the company as Vice President for Design in 1973. This past spring, after 35 years, he announced that he was stepping down. At an emotional going-away party on October 28, he talked about his three-and-a-half decades at the station. He has kindly given us permission to publish his remarks here. [The Editors]

The chance invitation to work here at WGBH placed me in an environment that was a perfect fit for my temperament, and for my aspirations as a professional and as just a plain person.

Once I came here, I recognized, gradually, why it felt so right as a place to work and associate. I’d like to take this opportunity to share ten lessons I learned in the past 35 years.

[I've pulled the headings - worth reading in detail]

1. Work on things that matter

2. Work with people you like and respect

3. Be nice

4. Have high standards

5. Have a sense of humor

6. Design is not the narrow application of formal skills, it is a way of thinking

7. Variety is the spice of life

8. Institutions have a character, just like people do

9. We’re all in the “understanding business”

10. You are what you eat

Posted via email from Siobhan O'Flynn's 1001 Tales

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