The late Georg Olden's design work broke new ground in 1945. As the chief of the CBS division of on-air promotions, Olden was helping to invent an entire field of graphic design; broadcast graphics. In the same way that early 90s websites were in desperate need of visual identities and art direction, television in the mid 40s was a similar blank canvas. Georg Olden took that canvas and painted incredible things. He guided the visual identities of programs that became part of the national fabric. Who could forget the heart logo of I Love Lucy? The look of Gunsmoke? Georg Olden was at the helm for these projects, plus the production of the first televised election returns in a presidential race in 1952.

Some design historians prefer to concentrate on Georg Olden's contribution to equal opportunity in broadcasting; Olden was the grandson of a slave and later known as the first African-American to design a postage stamp. But Olden's accomplishments, without the milestones, are worthy of recognition for their own sake. By 1970 Olden had won seven Clio awards. This is notable on its own, but it is worth pointing out that Olden himself designed the Clio statuette. His name is synonymous with the Golden Age of television, and when you look at today's graphic design on channels like CNN, MSNBC and CBS, it's easy to wonder what today's small screen experience would be like without the influence of Georg Olden. His design work helped shape more than six decades of television that followed.

Lou Danziger retired from design more than 20 years ago, preferring to work as a consultant and educator. His legacy in teaching is just as profound and Danziger is considered at the top of his field in both design and teaching what he knows about it. Danziger's work in the 50s through the 70s took Modernist concepts to a new level, using minimalism in both presentation and the creation of the work itself. Danziger took Modernism farther, while maintaining what he said was a healthy "disrespect for design". Danziger's career got off to a humble start, designing posters while serving in the Armed Forces from 1943 to 1945. When he was discharged, Danziger used the GI Bill to attend art school.

While he studied at the Art Center School in California, he learned from Alvin Lustig, who taught graphic and industrial design there. Later, Danziger joined the Design Group, founded by disciples of Lustig with a disdain for the nostalgia they found in what they labelled as "mindless" commercial design. Danziger created work for Esquire, General Lighting, Steelbuilt and others, concentrating on communicating ideas with a single image. As others have pointed out, he stood on the shoulders of Modernism, but always strove to take it to a better place and disliked being yoked to any limitation including genre or design movements. As an educator in places such as CalArts, Harvard, and the Art Center College of Design, Danziger's mission includes the need to impart three simple directives, telling students to feel, think and above all, create. Conceptualizing and talking about design are nothing without the work. Design, according to Danziger, is a problem-solving activity.

While many people wear more than one hat in the world of design, Stan Richards is a multi-tasker who brings a lot more to the table than just an additional skill. Richards, born in 1932, is a graduate of the Pratt Institute, where he studied under Hershel Levit. Richards began his career in Dallas at the Bloom Agency, but he soon branched out into freelance work. When he formed the Richards Group, he couldn't have known that one day he'd be responsible for the design work that helped launch TGI Fridays to national success, or that he'd be the mind behind one of the most recognizable ad campaigns in history; the Tom Bodett "We'll leave the light on for you" radio ads for Motel 6.

Today, Stan Richards wants to be known as an all-round creative type rather than being pigeonholed into "designer" or "ad man" categories. The Richards Group is a four-time winner of the "Agency of the Year" award by Ad Age Magazine, and as the principal behind Richards, Brock, Miller, Mitchell & Associates, he's helped win more awards than can be listed. With his passion for all things creative--not just design--he's a rare commodity in the design world as a jack of all creative trades and a master of them, too.

Ed Fella certainly could have rested on his laurels, but after three decades of a successful career as a commercial artist, Fella decided to enter the MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art and change his life. He was 47-years-old. After the MFA, he went on to secure a professorship at the California Institute of the Arts and has built a body of work some describe as a "mash-up" of high and low culture. Fella blurs the line between fine and applied art. His work collages a variety of fonts and design techniques, deconstructing them and inventing new ways to present old motifs. His work as a freelance designer incorporated his experimental, off-hours design concepts with more established techniques to create an approach uniquely his own.

Fella found a welcoming outlet for his ideas in the alternative arts movements in the 60s and 70s, and he gave his concepts a wider reach by designing posters and other media for nonprofits and arts organizations. The work he did in those days still informs his most recent efforts. Ed Fella may hold sway over students of design on campus, but his influence is also felt in places like the Museum of Modern Art, where his work is shown along with the same artists he promoted with his posters, catalogs and other design work.

The late LeRoy Winbrush became a graphic designer in 1936, shortly after graduating...high school. He started with an apprenticeship in a Chicago design shop, but quickly went from there to designing murals, signs, flyers and other materials for Chicago's Regal Theater, moving in the same circles as the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong. His love of the Chicago music community led to a few gigs designing album covers for Mercury Records. Winbrush also did work for Goldblatt's, eventually becoming art director for the entire Goldblatt's chain.
His work was incredibly diverse. LeRoy Winbrush had his hand in practically every medium a designer could find work in; he was responsible for the covers for Ebony and Jet magazines as the art director for Johnson Publishing; in 1964 Winbrush found himself doing design work for the New York World's Fair. He would later create a long-term exhibition on sickle cell anemia for Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry. In 1990 he became an exhibition consultant to the DuSable Museum of African-American History. LeRoy Winbrush died in 2007. A year later he was named as an AIGA medalist for his contributions to design and setting a unique standard of excellence. He left behind an incredible legacy of determination and design.