The 30 Most Influential Designers of All Time By Hana Cohn

As Dieter Rams once said, "Good design is as little design as possible." Which, at first reads as a paradox, but in
truth, Rams is absolutely right. These designers have forged products that have been seamlessly integrated into
our lives. Their objects and images have become so much a part of our visual vocabulary that we forget that there
was once someone there to plan, edit and create them. The innumerable logos, book covers, typefaces, chairs,
buildings, shoes, and furniture featured in this list have gone on to not only outlive their creators, but take on a
personality and life of their own.
These influential makers and their designs structure the way we experience the world we live in. They affect the
way we navigate, survive, and enjoy everything from work to play. Get to know the top people in the industry
with The 30 Most Influential Designers of All Time.
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30. Antonio Gaudi Medium: Architecture, Furniture, Interior Design etc

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Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaud's magnum opus is the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. The Temple
Expiatori de la Sagrada Familia is probably a singularly unique structure: part Neo-Gothic, part Naturalistic, part
hallucinatory dream. It is mind blowing that Gaud was thinking of and designing spaces such as these so early in
the 20th century, markedly different from the architecture of Victor Horta's Art Nouveau influence. Gaud also
designed interior spaces, doors, and furniture that look as though they are a part of the bizarrely seductive
universe that his architecture hails from. He even created pieces like a Gossip Chair, which is a series of seats
conjoined at the armrests.
29. Saul Bass Medium: Print Design and Animation

If you have ever seen the title sequences of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho, Spartacus, or Anatomy of a Murder, or
seen the posters for Vertigo or West Side Story, you have encountered Bass' most well known works. Other
contributions to our society rank among the Girl Scouts' and United Airways' logos.
28. Jesse W. Reno, George A. Wheeler, and Charles Seeberger Medium: Industrial Design

Reno, Wheeler and Seeberger are responsible for the escalator. We never thought we would get so excited about
something so typical, but apparently at the debut of the elevator, it was initially treated as a leisure activity rather
than serving a practical function. The escalator made a monumental impact upon its integration into architecture.
This device, however banal, has proliferated across world, and its original 19th century design has not been
disposed.
27. James Dyson Medium: Product Design

Forbes may have said it best: "Dyson brought a level of excitement to housekeeping that's usually reserved for
cell phones and plasma televisions." They're right; 360-degree-swivel vacuums and bladeless fans have never felt
so compelling.

26. Marcel Breuer Medium: Architecture, Furniture Design etc.

Like many of his brilliant contemporaries, Marcel Breuer also studied and taught at the Bauhaus in the 1920s,
where he would then take on a teaching position as the head of the university's carpentry workshop. His
familiarity with unforgiving materials of Industrial design eventually lead to this Hungarian Modernist's most
widely-recognized work: the Wassily Chair. The name may not be familiar to all of us, but the bent tubular steel
chair is no stranger in our lives. Breuer is also responsible for the Whitney Museum of American Art building
(1966) uptown, which is a familiar faade for New York City aesthetes and civilians alike.
25. Arne Jacobsen Medium: Industrial Design, Furniture etc.

Danish-born Arne Jacobsen is considered to be amongst the most influential architects and designers of the 20th
century. Two of the standouts of Jacobsen's prolific career are his Egg Chair (1956) and Swan Chair (1958).
Jacobsen's chairs exemplify the pared down silhouettes and seamless futuristic curves we have become so
attached to. Even after half a century, Jacobsen's work somehow manages to be historical, futuristic, and
contemporary all at the same time.
24. Stefan Sagmeister Medium: Graphic Design

Austrian native Stefan Sagmeister's most jarring (and recognizable) work was the infamous poster he designed for
AIGA in 1999, where he opted to have the text of the event excised into his skin and photographed as the result.
So, if Sagmeister doesn't type typography personally we don't know who does.
23. John S. Pemberton Medium: Typography

The other day while sitting in traffic, a huge 16-wheeler truck chugged along in the opposite direction. The giant
red hull read "Coca-Cola." The look of the brand's Spencerian Script logo has remained (for the most part)
unaltered since its original creation in 1886. After Pemberton had created the formula for his new drink, his
partner and bookkeeper suggested that he alliterate the brand name because "the two C's would look well in
advertising." Incredibly, over 125 years later, Coca-Cola's brand name is still iconic.
22. Massimo Vignelli Medium: Graphic Design etc.

Massimo Vignelli's famous adage "If you can design one thing, you can design everything" may not hold true for
everyone, but his idealism is much appreciated. Utopian aspirations aside, Vignelli re-branded familiar companies
such as American Airlines, Knoll, Bloomingdale's and Xerox, as well as created the signage for the NYC and DC
Metro systems. So, next time you are in New York City, and you realize that the MTA arrows point you in the
right direction, you have Vignelli to thank.
21. Kenichiro Ashida Medium: Product Design

Kenichiro Ashida is to thank for all the time we have spent burning calories and time with the Nintendo Wii. His
original design and creation of the Wii controllers, as well as its subsequent accessories, have truly changed the
way that we interact with virtual games in real space and time.
20. Rem Koolhaas Medium: Architecture

Rem Koolhaas is still hot; just last week, his design for the Miami Beach Convention Center Competition was
chosen as the winner. In addition to his continuing contributions to contemporary architecture, Koolhaas is a
Professor in Practice of Architecture and Urban Design at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University.
OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture) was co-founded by Koolhaas in 1975. In the late '90s, as OMA was
confronted with a transition into the virtual domain, they decided to create a new company called AMO, a think
tank dedicated to operating in "areas beyond the tradition boundaries of architecture, including media, politics,
sociology, renewable energy, technology, fashion, curating, publishing, and graphic design."
19. Zaha Hadid Medium: Architecture etc.

Iraqi-born architect Zaha Hadid was the first woman to with the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2004. Her
Starchitect status and global notoriety speak to her success and recognition as a designer of space and structure.
And two days ago, Hadid revealed her first New York City project: a boutique condo complex near New York
City's High Line park. In addition to her geometric mega-structures, she has also created furniture installations, as
well as had a hand in the design of a three-wheeled automobile. She even dabbled in footwear design to produce a
boot in 2009 with clothing brand Lacoste.
18. David Carson Medium: Typography, Graphic Design etc

David Carson has been dubbed the original grunge graphic designer. His work is not focused on ease of legibility
but rather reacts against that impulse. Type finds itself haphazardly wandering across pages, over pictures, even
on top of itself. Carson's work taps into the antithesis of modernist design and does it with such conviction that by
now it only seems natural.
17. Charles and Ray Eames Medium: Architecture, Furniture Design

The Eames' molded plywood lounge chair was the first and finest of its time when it debuted in the 1950s. Since
then, the chair and its accompanying ottoman, have been in constant production. It even holds a spot in the
permanent collection of MoMA in New York City. In addition to this stunning contribution to furniture design, the
Eames' home in Pacific Palisades (Case Study House #8, 1949) stands as a live-able (and lived-in) fantasy interior
and somehow continues to look fresh and unbridled by decades of passing trends.
16. Alvin Lustig Medium: Graphic Design

Alvin Lustig's designs may be like a fine wine; one that is enriched and more complex with age. Lustig's book
designs have a refined simplicity, whether it is tessellated shapes in varying colors, naively drawn women, or the
ABC's. In addition to being an accomplished graphic designer, Lustig was also a working interior and
architectural designer. He even produced the Lustig Chair for Paramount Furniture in Beverly Hills. Sadly,
Lustig's career was cut short by diabetes that he had developed as a teenager. By the age of 39, he was virtually
blind as a result of his condition and passed away the following year.
15. Paul Rand Medium: Graphic Design

One of Paul Rand's contemporaries, Louis Danzinger, once said of him, "He almost singlehandedly convinced
business that design was an effective tool." Rand's work was mainly in rebranding corporate identities. Rand's
designs were decidedly reductive and seemingly uncomplicated, and a style that was once groundbreaking, has
now become a paradigmatic model for generations of graphic designers today.
14. Richard Buckminster Fuller Medium: Architecture, Automobile Design etc.

Richard Buckminster Fuller knew no bounds. The man was an inventor and an architect, a cultural theorist and an
automobile designer, a simple game maker and a builder of geodesic domes. In retrospect, his two-time dismissal
from Harvard University reads like a historical joke. Fuller's international recognition began with his design of the
geodesic dome. He even established the World Design Science Decade (from 1965 to 1975) to "apply the
principles of science to solving the problems of humanity." He seemed to be outrageously ahead of his time;
urging designers to look towards renewable resources for energy, and creating affordable, sustainable works to
serve the citizens of the world.
13. Frank Gehry Medium: Architecture

Two of Frank Gehry's best-known works are his titanium-covered Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain and the
Walt Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles. These huge structures take on an unprecedented form and
scale, which have now become attributed specifically to Gehry. He was also responsible for the design of the
Experience Music Project in Seattle as well as Dancing House in Prague. It feels as though Gehry's work doesn't
really need any explanation, since the forms themselves are quite astonishing in their own right.
12. Philippe Starck Medium: Architecture, Product Design, Industrial Design etc.

This internationally renowned product designer began his career at the artistic director of Pierre Cardin's
publishing house. Following that accomplishment, Philippe Starck went on to establish his own industrial design
company that would work with the likes of Driade, Alessi and Kartell in Italy, Drimmer in Austria, Vitra in
Switzerland, and Disform in Spain. His dedication to the idea of democratic design led him to create massproduced consumer products rather than singular bespoke pieces. Starck gradually expanded his design practice to
every genre possible: furniture, domestic appliances, staplers, toothbrushes and lemon reamers, tableware, even
clothing, food, and architecture. Perhaps, the wonder of Starck is that his vision is not limited by medium, but
instead is liberated by their respective possibilities.
11. Frank Lloyd Wright Medium: Architecture, Furniture Design etc.

The prolific Frank Lloyd Wright designed more than 1,000 structures and completed over 500 works over his
career. Though Wright was also the designer of the famed Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City,
his magnum opus, Fallingwater (1935) in southwestern Pennsylvania, demonstrates an epitome of a harmony
between man and nature. The faade of the Kaufmann Residence (as it is also known) is striking of course the
cantilevered slabs seem to float sublimely above cascading waterfalls, but the structure and its contents have been
fully worked over by Wright. The entire interior (furnishing included) was also designed by Wright.
10. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Medium: Architecture

Mies van der Rohe is an accomplished man (to say the least). He served as the director of Berlin's Bauhaus as well
as the department head of architecture at the Illinois Institute of Technology, where he is credited to have
developed the Second Chicago School. Among his fellow modern architecture masters (or peers, as some might
refer to them) are Frank Lloyd Wright, Alvar Aalto, and Le Corbusier. But despite his rich associations, Mies
strove for what he called "skin and bones" architecture; architecture with minimal framework and open space.
Today, such a concept seems benign or even standard, but it was the prolific work of Mies that breathed life into
the mantra, "less is more."
9. Aleksandr Rodchenko Medium: Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Architecture, etc.

Aleksandr Rodchenko is widely considered one of the founders of the Productivist movement of in the early 20th
century Russian avant-garde art scene (which preceded landmarks such as Bauhaus and the De Stijl movement).
He emerged as a prolific painter, sculptor, photographer, graphic designer, industrial designer and architect.
Rodchenko sought to combine all mediums together for a socially engaged and aware purpose. He photographed
modern monuments of his time, created bold opinionated graphics and posters that spoke to his derision for
propaganda, and sought to use design to shape a better world.
8. David Mellor Medium: Industrial Design

David Mellor was once described as "Britain's greatest post-war product designer." Starting in 1950, Mellor
studied at the Royal College of Art in London, where he produced his first set of cutlery, "Pride." Though
designed while he was still a student, the collection of cutlery is still in production and being purchased today. In
addition to helping people eat their food chicly, Mellor designed street lighting, public seating, trash bins and
traffic lights. Essentially (and potentially) Mellor was structuring your life, and you didn't even know it.
7. Dieter Rams Medium: Industrial Design

German industrial designer Dieter Rams served as the head of the consumer products company Braun. Rams is
usually associated with the Functionalist school of industrial design and has even created ten clean-cut principles
for us civilians to qualify "good design." According to Rams, good design is innovative, makes a product useful,
is aesthetic, makes a product understandable, is unobtrusive, is honest, is long-lasting, is thorough down to the last
detail, is environmentally friendly, and is as little design as possible.
6. Milton Glaser Medium: Graphic Design

Milton Glaser is such an accomplished graphic designer that the I NY (yes, someone designed that) logo is only
a part of his portfolio. Glaser, along with his peer Clay Felker, founded New York Magazine in 1968. And among
some of the graphical gifts endowed to future generations from Glaser are the Target, JetBlue and Coach logos.
And, the 2009 documentary film titled To Inform and Delight: The World of Milton Glaser only drives home the
ideology that Glaser's work strove for: design that is legible, informative and visually pleasurable. That same year
Glaser was also awarded the National Medal of the Arts by President Barack Obama.
5. Le Corbusier / Charles-douard Jeanneret-Gris a.k.a. Le Corbusier Medium: Architecture etc.

In retrospect, history has painted Le Corbusier as a man who could create just about anything. He was a pioneer of
modernist high design and architecture and considered a visionary for the future of urban space. His idealistic
designs range from the infamous Villa Savoye (that summed up his five main points of architecture) to the
unfinished capital city complex of Chandigarh, India.
4. Childe Harold Wills, Joseph A. Galamb, and Eugene Farkas Medium: Automobile Design

These men designed the most important car of the 20th century. With a handful of ingenuity, hard work, and lack
of precedent, these gentlemen set the tone for automobile production, assembly and aesthetics to evolve from for
years to come.
3. Walter Gropius Medium: Architecture

In 1919, German architect Walter Gropius founded the Staatliches Bauhaus, an institution still renowned for its
approach to teaching and integrating craft, design and the fine arts. In addition to founding a school that attracted
the likes of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, and Josef Albers as faculty, Gropius is also
considered to be a pioneer of modern architecture.
2. Sir Jonathan Ive Medium: Industrial Design

Sir Jonathan Paul "Jony" Ive is Senior Vice President of Design at Apple Inc. and oversees the Industrial Design
for the MacBook Pro, iMac, MacBook Air, iPod, iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, iPad Mini and iOS 7. Essentially, this
man is responsible for the sleek Apple-laden monolith that we all succumb to at one point or another.
1. Max Miedinger Medium: Typography

Max Miedinger was a Swiss typeface designer who gave us Helvetica, a typeface that has subsumed so much of
our lives that we scarcely notice its ubiquity. The pared down typeface takes center stage in branding from
American Apparel to American Airlines; but Helvetica also weasels its way into instruction manuals and
nutritional panels. We also have yet to hear of another typeface that is compelling enough to have a feature length
documentary made about it.