Charles Eames, Harvard University Lecture Poster, design by Toshihiro Katayama [Rare]

Charles Eames Lecture Poster, 1971. The Charles Eliot Norton Lectures, Harvard Square Theatre, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA. 24 x 36, silkscreen, rolled, never folded. Printed in an unknown quantity but presumed to be small. Design by Toshihiro [Toshi] Katayama (1928—2013), Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts. 

Rare. In 1970 Eames was appointed the Charles Eliot Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University. The Norton chair is traditionally held by an individual who has made a significant contribution to literature, music, or the fine arts. The individual is asked to deliver a series of lectures at Harvard, open to the university community. The announced topic of the lectures was “Problems Relation to Visual Communication and the Visual Environment.” He delivered six lectures over six-months (October 1970 to April 1971), first at the Loeb Drama Center, then at the Harvard Theater to accommodate the large crowds. — Eames Office

This poster promotes Lectures #4, #5 and #6; March 15, March 29 and April 26, each held at the Harvard Square Theatre. “His posters for the Center‘s lecture series and his exhibition designs in the hall on the third floor mark some of the finest work available in the greater Harvard area.” — The Harvard Crimson, 1966

Born in Osaka, Japan, designer Toshihiro [Toshi] Katayama worked as Art Director at the Nippon Design Center, before joining the Geigy design studio in Basel, Switzerland in 1963. In 1966, Katayama was invited to join the staff at the Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts (or Visual Arts Center, VAC) at Harvard University, where he taught and helped shape the Center’s graphic image through his poster, catalog and exhibition designs mainly produced for lectures, exhibitions and Harvard events. He served as the Director for the Carpenter Center for Visual Arts from 1990—1995.

Many of Katayama’s posters were screen printed and presumably printed in small quantities by Katayama himself or his students at the Center‘s printing workshops. This poster design points to his interest with symbols and elongated, isometric cube projections; a reoccurring motif in his works. Katayama’s poster are mostly minimal and suggest the influence of Swiss graphic design combined with other influences; this one pairs lowercase Helvetica with the Moore Computer typeface.

A very good and still bright original poster with only light wear. Some blemishes and minor imperfections to the image. Four small tears (some reinforced with tape on verso), a few light creases and a small chip along the edges. See this poster in the two superb in situ photographs from the Eames Office. Poster will be shipped rolled.