Tibor Kalman

Graphic Designer, Visual Artist

1949 – 1999

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Who was Tibor Kalman?

Tibor Kalman was an American graphic designer of Hungarian origin, well known for his work as editor-in-chief of Colors magazine.

Kalman was born in Budapest and became a U.S. resident in 1956, after he and his family fled Hungary to escape the Soviet invasion, settling in Poughkeepsie, New York. He later attended NYU, dropping out after one year of Journalism classes. In the 1970s Kalman worked at a small New York City bookstore that eventually became Barnes & Noble. He later became the supervisor of their in-house design department. In 1979 Kalman, Carol Bokuniewicz, and Liz Trovato started the design firm M & Co., which did corporate work for such diverse clients as the Limited Corporation, the New Wave music group Talking Heads, and Restaurant Florent in New York City's Meatpacking District. Kalman also worked as creative director of Interview magazine in the early 1990s.

Kalman became founding editor-in-chief of the Benetton-sponsored Colors magazine in 1990. In 1993, Kalman closed M & Co. and moved to Rome, to work exclusively on the magazine. Billed as 'a magazine about the rest of the world', Colors focused on multiculturalism and global awareness. This perspective was communicated through bold graphic design, typography, and juxtaposition of photographs and doctored images, including a series in which highly recognizable figures such as the Pope and Queen Elizabeth were depicted as racial minorities. Kalman remained the main creative force behind Colors, until the onset of non-Hodgkins lymphoma forced him to leave in 1995, and return to New York.

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Born
Jul 6, 1949
Budapest
Nationality
  • Hungary
  • United States of America
Profession
Education
  • New York University
Lived in
  • Budapest
Died
May 2, 1999
Puerto Rico

Submitted
on July 23, 2013

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