kingy graphic design history: JUDY WOODY PIRTLE

Monday, March 8, 2010

JUDY WOODY PIRTLE

Woody Pirtle established Pirtle Design in Dallas, Texas in 1978. Over the next 10 years the firm produced some of the most celebrated graphic design work of the decade. During that period, the firm created identity programs and marketing materials for Baylor University Medical Center, The Dallas Museum of Art, TGI Friday’s, Dallas Opera, Diamond Shamrock Corporation, National Gypsum, Centex Homes, Gerald D. Hines Interests, Simpson Paper Company and NCR, to name a few.

In 1988 Woody merged Pirtle Design with famous design company Pentagram, where he was a partner for 18 years and worked on some  of the firm’s most prestigious projects, for many of its A-list clients.  In 2005 Woody left Pentagram to re-establish Pirtle Design.

Woody’s work has been exhibited worldwide and is in the permanent  collections of the Museum of Modern Art and Cooper-Hewitt Museum in  New York, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the Neue Sammlung  Museum in Munich, and the Zurich Poster Museum. He has taught at the  School of Visual Arts, lectured extensively, is a member of the  Alliance Graphique Internationale, and has served on the board of  HOW magazine, Sustainable Hudson Valley, and the American Institute  of Graphic Arts. In October 2003 he was awarded the prestigious AIGA  Medal for his career contribution to the design profession.

In these times when we are flooded with information, Woody Pirtle raises the issue of a designer's responsibility. His philosophy in designing is "the maximum in messages and the minimum in measures." - "Just as when you make wine or whisky, you concentrate on the aspects you want to communicate until you have distilled them to their essense." A crystallization of Partle's philosophy was shown with identity designs that convey original corporate messages, simple logo types and posters.