Tadeusz Pietrzyk Archive

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Roman Duszek

I met Tadeusz when we were both students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw in the years 1953–1959. We studied in the same studios at the Faculty of Graphic Design and quickly became friends. My memories of him revolve naturally around our studies and the teachers we encountered. Our professors would not give us tasks of the “go and design a logo or a package” kind but instead equipped us with a box full of tools which we discovered in the due course. We learnt to fully appreciate them years later. At the “Masters” as we called the workshop of painting and drawing of professor Leon Michalski and his wife Halina, we were led by the proverbial “button” to “the wailing wall” – a showcase with copies of great masters. There we were taught about the play of light and shade, subtleties of lines, so important in that play; there we also discovered the mysteries of colour. Tadeusz was quick to learn the secrets of masters and soon his easel was home to beautiful and intricate charcoal studies showing great sensitivity. He was an attentive observer, possessed great sense of form and the ability to express it using simple means. I, on the other hand, kept sewing back “the button” by which the professor led me to the wall before having my works finally approved. The second class which we both attended was the studio of professor Andrzej Rudziński. It was the course at the outskirts of mainstream art, the one we could call today “visual communication”. Beside “graphic techniques”, it was the realm of the book in all its aspects. The professor taught us that the inside of the book is as important as its cover, or title page. The pages which we designed had to be typographically immaculate. That principle was decisive in Tadeusz’s professional career when he devoted himself to comprehensive book design. Tadeusz was constantly searching for new means of expression. One example of that were his linocuts which were made in the above mentioned studio. I remember their uniqueness, the wide-sweeping, organic, vibrant line – so unusual in this technique; I was amazed with the line wandering freely and stopping in the most unusual places or changing its intensity. Tadeusz achieved such effects by treating the plate as if it were a sheet of paper attached to his easel. Then he traced the negative space of the composition with a chisel, leaving the drawing intact in its original form. In the same studio we also learnt lettering – the art now deemed old-fashioned and irrelevant. One of the notorious tasks was drawing a short text in majuscule with the hardest pencil. The difficulty lay in keeping perfect uniform spacing between letters, and the uniform intensity of a letter. The professor used to put on his glasses, often took out a magnifier and mercilessly highlighted our mistakes with a red pencil. We would bring several sheets for correction, hoping that they be the final ones. Tadeusz was the first student to successfully complete the assignment. Even though it was not our favourite at the time, the task made us master the skill of drawing a line smooth in its intensity and ingrained the need for perfect spacing. Another task the essence of which we comprehended much later was a synthetic depiction of a chosen animal. We were limited by the format – half of A4, ink and a large brush. The reduction of means of expression forced us to the maximum simplification of form. The echo of the task found its reflection in numerous awards Tadeusz won for his trademarks and logos which were characterized by reduced and yet sophisticated form. I remember now a sign, perfect in its economy, showing a walrus designed for a frozen food company. Rudziński’s workshop operated in the “pre-computer” era, therefore we were taught to draw even 10 point text using an 00 brush. Letrasets and photoedition were not available. Many years later the book covers by Tadeusz still had titles drawn by hand, in all possible fonts, including his own creations. His skills of drawing letters by hand found their reflection in exquisite graphic signs. One example of a timeless graphic form based on a letter is the logo of “Telimena” Fashion House; another one is the es sign for the School Encyclopedia (Encyklopedia Szkolna) series. As a student Tadeusz participated in contests involving different forms of graphic design, especially trademarks. He did that for the sheer joy of creation and winner’s satisfaction. When he was receiving awards he would smile lightly and his eyes would show how happy he really was. We competed against each other then, always remaining close friends. It seems to me that our rivalry helped both of us set high standards against which we would measure our own work. During his studies, Tadeusz had to support his young family. Therefore he completed numerous projects. Those were usually small graphic forms, book covers and packages. Beside graphics, he designed jewellery for the orno cooperative. I remember contemplating his creations in the jeweller’s window display in Nowy Świat. My friend was a real titan of design. He brought to school countless works, experimented with all possible forms and techniques. And he achieved all that working in very modest conditions in his studio, sized 10–12 square metres in Srebrna Street. The space might seem sufficient for a graphic artist’s atelier but Tadeusz had to share it with his mother, wife and later also a baby daughter – the arrangement of the room changed several times a day. It is almost inconceivable today that so many distinguished works could be created in such modest conditions. Tadeusz’s creative endeavours have yielded extraordinary results – in his case hard work bore great fruits. Per Aspera ad Astra. Writing of the academic years of Tadeusz, I recall his design work for publishers, especially of science and technology titles. Those days the graphic designer’s order usually included only book covers, sometimes title pages. The interior of books was left to technical editors. That changed when Tadeusz took the position of Chief Graphic Designer for Scientific and Technical Publications (Wydawnictwa Naukowo-Techniczne wnt). The interior of books, which was once deemed less important, regardless of the content, became the playing field for the graphic artist. In science books Tadeusz found the uncharted territory for experiments whose aim was to achieve better comprehension of difficult subjects. The reader was guided through the pages playing with the spaces on their margin, clear text column, picture captions, footnotes and pagination. Wherever a text would make the page too grey, Tadeusz introduced dark initial accents. Each page was designed with the intended contrast of type color and illustrations. Even the book index was an opportunity for the intricate graphic design. Tadeusz supervised the making of technical drawings so that they harmonized with the text and conveyed content which was clear to understand. Upon graduation Tadeusz got the position of art and graphics director at the Transport and Communication Publishers (Wydawnictwa Komunikacji i Łączności wkł). His previous editorial experience helped him alter the face of the publisher. By constant raising of design standards he was more and more demanding of the designers working for him, as well as himself. The outstanding titles published under his supervision were Polish Railway Locomotives (Parowozy kolei polskich) and Polish Motorcycles (Polskie motocykle). Among publications designed by Tadeusz there were not only science and technology books but also books and albums for various publishing houses. His series School Encyclopedia (Encyklopedia Szkolna) was characterized by the exceptionally clear structure and has become a benchmark against which new textbooks are designed. When I browse through his creations, what strikes me is the deep understanding of the essence of Design. It was the awareness of the role of the designer as a mediator between the author of the message and the receiver. The designer’s job was to make the message clearer and easier to comprehend. Hence Tadeusz would hide in the shadow, not striving for recognition of originality, but understanding that his design does not emphasise his role but the function it needs to fulfil. Looking at what Tadeusz did for scientific and technical publications from today’s perspective, I am amazed how forward-looking he was by adopting what we call today the “architecture of information” and “user-friendly design”. Even though the notions were coined only recently, books designed in Tadeusz’s studio were perfect examples of reader-centred design. Among his works there were titles which referred to his own experience. I mean the two books about the Warsaw Uprising. Tadeusz used to tell me how he was leaving the burning Warsaw. The memory of that horror would haunt him. What he saw and remembered found its reflection in the graphic design of the books. Tadeusz won numerous awards for best edited books, for his unique approach to design and for the workmanship of his works. In my recollection I have tried to point to the sources from which Tadeusz drew his inspiration. I am convinced that his studies lay the groundwork for his later success. Finally, I would like to add that he was a man of exceptional honesty and professional integrity, characterised by great modesty, talent, passion for his work and analytical mind. Tadeusz loved his job. These and other insights can be inferred from the works collected for the purpose of the exhibition.

I am proud that he counted me among his friends.

Arti
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Ewa Satalecka

The war had ended and the fires in the devastated capital were dying out. He was eleven years old. The whole world had fallen apart, but he and his mother had survived. Downtown Warsaw, where he was born and raised, had disappeared from the face of the earth following the uprising in 1944. Among the ruins they found a 100 square foot chamber and moved in. Under the bed, in a cardboard box, he kept figures that he carved out of rectangular lumps of chalk. A school had to be chosen for him and they needed to return to some normalcy of life. Tadeusz was sent to the State Art Lyceum (today the State Art Schools Complex). He was not only talented, but also hardworking, consumed by a creative passion. Years later, his friends and wife recalled seeing him in the light of his bedside lamp, hunched over another design. “He was already designing as a student,” recalls his close friend Roman Duszek, “fellow students admired him and were a little jealous, as he had the gift of synthetic thinking, of defining an idea by means of a brilliant visual abbreviation. His logos were distinguished by an ascetic, and at the same time very legible drawing, beautiful, harmonious form and an attractively captured, metaphorical association, accurately defining the object represented.” His signs came into being at the same time as imagination and memory – the moment they were necessitated by the absence of the objects from present perception, to paraphrase Derrida. He was capable of carefully observing and determining verbal-visual associations. He studied and worked to support his family (he married and became a father at the age of 21), at the same time winning graphic design competitions. In quality, his works from the fifties matched the logos by Paul Rand, Saul Bass and Adrian Frutiger. They are simply beautiful. He designed them at night, curled up on the floor of his cramped room. It was only when their second child was born that they obtained an allocation for a 200 square foot studio apartment. Work and family life merged into one. Above all, he loved designing, but couldn’t work away from home. He equipped the long awaited cooperative apartment with furnishings of his own design that were simple, raw and geometric, devoid of any decoration. They look like those of Donald Judd from the early nineties, except that they were made 10 years earlier. Pietrzyk’s ability to analyze space and determine the hierarchy of elements of composition is clearly visible in the logo designs he created, his typographic layouts of books and in the shaping of his personal environment. Eliminating everything superfluous and focusing on function, he proposed elegant forms that withstand the test of time. He earned his (Hons.) degree at the Academy of Fine Arts in 1959, but two years earlier was already employed as a graphic artist (in time – as the art director, 1969) at Scientific and Technical Publications (Wydawnictwa Naukowo-Techniczne wnt). There he designed book series and guides, for example the Encyclopedia of Technology (Encyklopedia techniki, 1966) and a Guide to Engineering (Poradnik inżyniera, 1964). In 1969, he took a second job as the art and graphics director (later – head graphic designer) at Transport and Communication Publishers (Wydawnictwa Komunikacji i Łączności wkł), where he worked until his retirement (1998). In addition to logos and book designs – especially popular science and technical titles – he also designed packaging, magazines, posters, practiced printmaking, and even deigned jewelry (for the orno Cooperative). His contemporaries preferred poster designs over encyclopedias, and printmaking over packaging design. “What we were doing,” recalls Roman Duszek years later, “was commonly referred to as hack work.” Prizes for advertising graphics, packaging and book design were “less important,” being “less artistic.” Still, Tadeusz Pietrzyk won quite a lot of them. He was awarded the Golden Chestnut (Złoty Kasztan) for his packaging design for “Froto” floor polish (silk-screen printing on glass bottles, 1964), and regularly received awards for logos (including the Ministry of Light Industry’s Award for the “Telimena” Fashion House logo, 1969). He was considered the creator of the pattern for Polish scientific and technical books. In the years 1960–1999, the Polish Book Publishers Association (Polskie Towarzystwo Wydawców Książek ptwk) repeatedly rewarded publications designed by him – more than 40 awards, including 8 top prizes, such as his Chemistry (Chemia) encyclopedia in 1965 and Polish Steam Locomotives (Parowozy polskie) in 1973. Three of these, with the very inartistic sounding titles: Servos (Serwomechanizmy, 1978), Polish Railway Locomotives (Parowozy kolei polskich, 1979) and Corrosion Fatigue of Metals (Zmęczeniowe niszczenie metali, 1979) also received awards in the competition Internationale Buchkunst-Ausstellung – iba in Leipzig. In his career, Tadeusz Pietrzyk designed more than 200 books for numerous Polish publishing houses. He created the canon for Polish popular science books and modern layouts for encyclopedic publications. His functional typography is, as Beatrice Warde would say, like “crystal-clear glass, thin as a bubble, and as transparent.” The tasteful detail of these simple and easy to navigate books is captivating: with gracefully composed endpapers and fine colors that serve as an information code and break the monotony of gray pages. Wojciech Pawlak wrote in the magazine Technical Press (Prasa Techniczna): “Cool elegance – is the best description of the books in the series Electronics and Telecommunications Problems (Problemy elektroniki i telekomunikacji). [...] In assessing the means of differentiation used by the artist: colors and fonts, I strongly approve of color! It is decidedly Tadeusz Pietrzyk’s most graceful partner.” He ended his eulogy with pathos and propaganda: “Thanks to the talent of Tadeusz Pietrzyk, one of the greatest book designers in the entire 35 years of the Polish People’s Republic, people from the world of technology have the opportunity to every day commune with beauty, about which Norwid said ‘it exists to enchant and rouse to work.’” The designer used coarse grade papers in such a way that these would seem deliberately chosen. Serving this purpose was the use of a typeface in many variations and versions and expressive graphic illustration, often black and white, with a single flat color added by means of a woodcut or silkscreen technique. Diagrams, structural drawings and maps are clear, transparent and ideally composed in relation to the space of page spreads. The proportions of white and printed areas were balanced so as to facilitate reading and differentiate complex information. Roman Duszek remembered seeing the layout of a textbook English Language Grammar (Gramatyka języka angielskiego): “It was the first time I ever held in my hands a textbook that showed the structure of a language.” Pietrzyk was a master at translating content into visual structures. In the journal Nowe Książki (New Books), under the initials T. K., the author of an article in the “Portraits” section wrote: “… but the most important area of Tadeusz Pietrzyk’s work is his book design, which he calls ‘book architecture.’… In his opinion, positive results can only be achieved through close cooperation and partnership between editors, in some cases, even the author, at the time of conceptual work – and the graphic, typographic and technical editors, supervising the implementation of the whole work. ... And so, in books prepared by Pietrzyk we find, for example, captions to illustrations arranged in a manner that prevents their competing with the main text, often relegated to the margin. Nor are his margins accidentally symmetrical, but there to form a text column to ensure maximum legibility, with maximum visibility of distinguishing features. A new solution to facilitate the use of technical books is to introduce chapter numbers alongside pagination and a careful marking of chapters, subsections and other elements making up the book’s layout, so that they not only merge into a single chord with the book’s content, but act as if to ‘prompt’ the reader.” The author goes on to quote Tadeusz Pietrzyk’s motto: “To so design both the graphics and typographic layout of a book that the printer derives satisfaction from its production.” In the quoted article for the magazine Prasa Techniczna, Wojciech Pawlak recalled: “Everyone who visited a bookstore in October 1979 and stopped in the fiction section could not help noticing the five-volume edition of Selected Works by Leo Tolstoy, with which the National Publishing Institute (Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy piw) inaugurated its Library of Classics (Biblioteka Klasyków). From among the mass of books, the sharp eyes of customers quickly discerned these volumes of enchanting beauty: graceful 16-page signature, printed on good third grade offset paper, presented in a fine, golden dust jacket designed by Tadeusz Pietrzyk.” Tadeusz Pietrzyk’s life and work can be summed up by another quote from Beatrice Warde: “Nobody (save the other craftsmen) will appreciate half your skill. But you may spend endless years of happy experiment in devising that crystalline goblet which is worthy to hold the vintage of the human mind.”

Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technologies supported in this endeavour by Adam Mickiewicz Institute/culture.pl, wihes to thank for permission to reprint the article written by Ewa Satalecka “Tadeusz Pietrzyk”, first published in VeryGraphic: Polish Designers of the 20th Century, edited by Jacek Mrowczyk.