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'''Tibor Kalman''' (b.
1949, d.
May 2,
1999) was an influential
graphic designer. Kalman is most known for his work as editor of ''Colors'' magazine.
Kalman was born in
Budapest and became a
U.S. resident in
1956. He worked at a small
New York City bookstore in the 1970s that eventually became
Barnes & Noble, and became the supervisor of their in-house design department. He started his own design firm, M&Co, in
1979, doing work for such diverse clients as the
Limited Corporation and the
New Wave music group,
Talking Heads.
Kalman became founding editor-in-chief of the
Benetton-sponsored ''Colors'' magazine in 1990. Billed as "a magazine about the rest of the world", ''Colors'' focused on
multiculturalism and global awareness. This perspective was communicated through Kalman's bold graphic design,
typography, and juxtaposition of photographs and doctored images, including a series in which highly recognizeable figures such as the
Pope and
Queen Elizabeth were depicted as racial minorities. Kalman remained the main creative force behind ''Colors'' until he left the magazine in 1995.
Kalman died in 1999 in
Puerto Rico of
non-Hodgkins lymphoma, shortly before a retrospective of his graphic design work, entitled ''Tiborocity'', opened its U.S. tour at the
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
