Will Burtin

Will Burtin (1908-1972) was one of the foremost information designers of the twentieth century. After emigrating to the United States from Germany, Burtin became art director for Fortune magazine. Burtin established his own design firm in New York in 1949, with clients including Union Carbide, Eastman Kodak, the Smithsonian Institution, and Upjohn Pharmaceuticals.

Through the design of Scope, the Upjohn firm’s journal for physicians, as well as his award-winning exhibitions, Burtin made important advances in making scientific knowledge more accessible. The Will Burtin Archive is currently the largest collection in the GDA and was donated by Carol Burtin Fripp in 2000. In July 2005, the Getty Foundation awarded RIT a grant to process and organize the collection. Researchers can read the monograph Design and Science: The Life and Work of Will Burtin by Robert Fripp and Roger Remington.