Muriel Cooper, an influential twentieth-century designer, best known for her pioneering in book design who also engaged in digital design, design research, and education. Muriel Cooper, born in 1925, attended college in Ohio State, and then went to Massachusetts College of Art. After graduation, she worked as a freelancer at a publishing company and became a co-founder of the prestigious MIT Media Lab. Cooper worked most of his life at MIT Media Lab – she was the first woman granted tenured in the MIT Media Lab.
Cooper designed the most influential design publications in America. She created the iconic colophon before becoming the press’s first art director designing print publications, including The Bauhaus (1969) and Learning from Las Vegas (1972), etc. Total more than five hundred books. Cooper spent time working with the Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction of the Association for Computing Machinery as part of her exploits to explore computer-based typography and graphic design possibilities. Most of her work was experiments in digital design and typography were anticipatory of later developments in user interface design on desktop computers, laptops, and smartphones, and her design legacy still holds influence on digital design practices in visualizing information today.
Cooper died in 1994 at the age of 68. However, she has changed how the design world thinks about graphic design, and her contributions still inspire many designers.
The Bauhaus: Weimar, Dessau, Berlin, Chicago, MIT Press, 1969
Bibliography
Rawsthorn, Alice. “Muriel Cooper: The Unsung Heroine of on-Screen Style.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 30 Sept. 2007, www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/style/28iht-design1.1.7670693.html?auth=link-dismiss-google1tap.
“Muriel Cooper: Turning Time into Space.” We Stand with Our Community, walkerart.org/magazine/muriel-cooper-turning-time-into-space.
The MIT Press. “University Press Week: Throwback Thursday Featuring Muriel Cooper.” The MIT Press, The MIT Press, 13 Nov. 2014, mitpress.mit.edu/blog/university-press-week-throwback-thursday-featuring-muriel-cooper.
“Muriel Cooper: Biography, Designs and Facts.” Famous Graphic Designers, www.famousgraphicdesigners.org/muriel-cooper.
I wrote a bio on Muriel Cooper too! it is lovely to see you mentioned her symbol designs (I didn’t catch up that part) haha.