George Giusti papers

George Giusti (née Wuermli) was born in Milan in 1908. Giusti’s father was of Swiss descent (Wuermli) and his mother was Italian. George Giusti received his professional training at the Reale Accadmia de Belle Arti di Brera in Milan, Italy. His influences include Mies van der Rohe, Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee. After graduation he worked as a designer in Lugano, Italy and then moved to Zurich, Switzerland where he opened his own design studio from 1930 to 1937. In 1936, George married Margot Joachimsthal Neiche, a promising fashion designer. In 1937, their son Robert Giusti was born. George adopted his mother’s name (Giusti) when he immigrated to the United States. Giusti immigrated to the United States in 1938, and spent the majority of his career in New York. He started a freelance practice and designed posters and publicity materials for United States government agencies during World War II. He later worked as an editorial design consultant for various commercial concerns, including twelve years for Geigy Pharmaceuticals. He created a number of memorable cover designs for popular consumer magazines such as Time, Fortune, Scientific American and Holiday in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The boldness and simplicity of his forms on these covers has been attributed to his use of the sculpture as a starting point. Giusti had an interest in many types of media and materials, which he put to use in his collage works and sculptural pieces. Giusti also designed for many forms of print media, and his work can be found on numerous posters, book jackets, and record covers from the same period. He was widely recognized by his peers as an innovator and his work was often reproduced in Graphis and Graphis Annual, both highly respected design publications. He won numerous awards for his work and in 1979 was inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Art Directors Club of New York. His works can also be found in the Museum of Modern Art and National Museum of American Art. He died in 1990.