Ladislav Sutnar

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Ladislav Sutnar (Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, 9 November 1897 - 1976) was a Czech graphic designer who was a pioneer of what is now termed information design and information architecture.

He was educated in Prague at the Prague School of Decorative Arts and then the Czech Technical University, and became a teacher and later Director at the State School of Graphic Arts and Design from 1923-1936. He was also an art director at the Družstevní Práce ("Cooperative Work") publishing house. He went to the USA in 1939 as part of the Czech Pavilion for the 1939 New York World's Fair, and found himself stranded in New York at the outbreak of war in Europe. His wife and two sons were trapped in Prague. He spent the rest of his life in the USA, and worked for Bell from the late 1950s to the early 1960s. He was influenced by the Isotype work of Otto Neurath. He designed the North American area-code parentheses for Bell. He also developed icons and navigational structures for Sweet's Catalog Service, which can be seen as ancestors of today's computer icons and web navigation signage. As the 1960s progressed, tastes in design changed, and Sutnar so found it more and more difficult to find work. He turned to making paintings.