CENTRO DE DISEÑO E INNOVACIÓN

TECNOLÓGICA INDUSTRIAL
REGIONAL RISARALDA - DOSQUEBRADAS

CHRONICLE OF AN ICONIC CHARACTER

DAVID CONSUEGRA - GRAPHIC DESIGNER

TECNOLOGÍA EN DESARROLLO PUBLICITARIO

( 2758446)
ALEXANDRA OSPINA SALINAS
BOGOTÁ , 1O DE DICIEMBRE 2023.
DAVID CONSUEGRA
Was a prolific graphic designer whose work included poster and book design, publishing, teaching and research. His work
as a brand designer occupies a significant place in Colombian graphic design, not only because of his vast production in
this field, but also because some of his designs are part of the country's graphic identity. Undoubtedly, his production of
brands is considerable, and although sometimes he himself preferred to be recognized for his work in other areas of
graphic design, it is inevitable to resort to this material to understand some of the ideas that shaped his work in general.
Through brand design, David wanted to give an aesthetic identity to Colombian graphic design, and this concern led him
to study and revitalize stylistic elements of pre-Columbian art. His studies and achievements in this field clearly illustrate
how he managed to integrate graphic elements of pre-Hispanic art into Colombian brand and symbol design.

David's interest in brand design began during his studies in Fine Arts at Boston University and later
at Yale University, where he earned a master's degree in graphic design in 1963. There he was also
in direct contact with one of the most prominent brand designers in the United States at that time,
the New Yorker Paul Rand. In the 1950s and 1960s, corporate identity design in North America
was in full swing, a period in which Rand created such memorable designs as the logos for IBM,
UPS, Westinghouse and ABC, among others (Heller, 2004). At Yale, David also came into contact
with the work of Herbert Matter, who taught him in the master's program, and with that of Alvin
Eisenman, a book designer and continuator of the university's Graphic Design program, founded
by Josef Albers.3 At the end of 1963, Consuegra graduated with a thesis entitled On Brands, and
returned to Colombia. Four years later he published his work in a book entitled De marcas y símbo-
los. On Trademarks, 4 a publication that was subsequently edited and expanded, reaching four
editions between 1963 and 1976, including the original version.

From the beginning, the book Of Marks and Symbols was intended to be a manual available to the
graphic designer. David's intention was to provide the designer with a vocabulary that would allow
him to articulate some of the visual elements that are handled in the profession. In this way, David
felt it was important to include the definition of a number of concepts, such as symmetry, asymme-
try, structure, image, unity, line, stroke, plane and form. He also gave a detailed explanation of the
terms brand, logotype, monogram, symbol and brand-symbol. His definitions, together with the
graphic examples that accompany them, are an essential contribution of this work, since they esta-
blish and outline the different varieties of corporate identity design. The graphic examples included
in this book are Consuegra's creation, except for those used to describe some specific genres, and
each one is accompanied by an explanation of the criteria he took into account for its creation. The
book is a theoretical and practical manual on the design of trademarks and symbols, with which the
author aspired to establish a solid base for the development of this activity in Colombia.

David's interest in the dissemination of brand and symbol design would lead him to publish the work of other designers on
the subject.6 Thus, in 1978 he began publishing the "Temas de consulta" series, which offered a series of booklets desig-
ned and edited by himself.7 The first of these was ABC en el diseño de marcas, which contains an alphabetical selection
of brand designs by a variety of designers, both Latin American and from other parts of the world. This project was to
become a book ten years later. The examples show the treatment of the letter-image, i.e., they show how from the initial
letter of a company or product