Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv
Formerly	Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar (1957–1959); Chermayeff & Geismar (1959–2006)
Type	Partnership
Industry	Corporate identity
Founded	1957; 64 years ago in New York City
Founder	Robert Brownjohn, Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermayeff
Headquarters	New York City
Key people	Tom Geismar (Founding Partner); Ivan Chermayeff (Founding Partner, 1957–2017); Robert Brownjohn (Founding Partner, 1957–1959); Sagi Haviv (Partner); Mackey Saturday (Principal Designer);
Website	cghnyc.com

Well-known logos designed by Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv: (left to right, top to bottom) NBC, Mobil, Merck, Armani Exchange, Smithsonian Institution, PBS, Showtime, NYU, Barneys New York, Chase Bank, National Geographic, Univision

Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv (formerly Brownjohn, Chermayeff & Geismar and Chermayeff & Geismar) is a New York-based branding and graphic design firm. It is currently led by partners Tom Geismar and Sagi Haviv.^[1]

About[]

It was founded in 1957 by the two Yale graduates Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar as well as Robert Brownjohn, a protégé of László Moholy-Nagy and Chermayeff's father, industrial designer Serge Chermayeff, at the New Bauhaus in Chicago.^[2] Brownjohn, who struggled with heroin addiction for most of his adult life, left the partnership to join J. Walter Thompson's London branch in 1959.

The firm has designed logos for such companies as Pan Am, Mobil Oil, PBS, Chase Bank, Barneys New York, The Museum of Modern Art, Xerox, Smithsonian Institution, NBC, Cornell University, National Geographic,^[3] State Farm,^[4] and many others. Ivan Chermayeff and Tom Geismar were awarded the AIGA Medal in 1979.^[5]^[6] Chermayeff died on December 3, 2017 at the age of 85.^[7]^[8]

In 2006, designer Sagi Haviv became the third partner at the firm.^[9] In 2013 Haviv's name was added to the masthead and the firm became known as Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv.^[10] Designer Mackey Saturday joined the firm as a principal in 2016.^[11]

In recent years, the firm created identities for Discovery, Inc.'s online streaming service Discovery+,^[12] the United States Olympic & Paralympic Museum,^[13] the US Open tennis tournament,^[14] esports brand Panda Global,^[15]Dick Wolf’s Wolf Entertainment,^[16]Animal Planet,^[17] Impossible Aerospace,^[18] Hearst Corporation, the Southern Poverty Law Center, The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Conservation International,^[19] the Women's Tennis Association,^[20] Harvard University Press,^[21] State Farm, Grupo Imagen TV (Mexico),^[22] L.A. Reid's Hitco Entertainment,^[23] Leonard Bernstein at 100,^[24] CourseHero,^[25] ClearMotion,^[26] Nanotronics,^[27] Flatiron Health^[28] and other major institutions.

The firm is known for the exhibits and environmental art installations it has designed, including the Ellis Island Immigration Museum, the Statue of Liberty Museum, two World's Fair pavilions (the U.S. pavilions of 1967 and 1970), and the red number 9 at 9 West 57th Street in New York City. In 2008, the new Star-Spangled Banner exhibit designed by the firm opened at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. The firm also designed the Kennedy Center Honors medal,^[29] and designs motion graphics, such as the titles for the Emmy Award-winning PBS documentary series Carrier^[30] and in 2009, a motion graphics display for Alicia Keys’ annual fundraiser for her Keep a Child Alive Foundation.

Recently Published Books[]

In 2018 Sagi Haviv, Tom Geismar and Ivan Chermayeff co-authored Identity: Chermayeff & Geismar & Haviv. The book was published by Standards Manual (ISBN 0692955232).^[31]

In 2011 Haviv, Geismar and Ivan Chermayeff co-authored the book Identify: Basic Principles of Identity Design in the Iconic Trademarks of Chermayeff & Geismar. The book was published by Print magazine's book imprint, (ISBN 978-1440310324).