Emily Oberman (born 1962) is a New York-based multidisciplinary designer and a partner at design studio

Pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around ...

. Formerly, Oberman was a co-founder of design studio

Number Seventeen ''Number Seventeen'' is a 1932 British Comedy film, comedy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring John Stuart (actor), John Stuart, Anne Grey and Leon M. Lion. The film, which is based on the 1925 burlesque stage play ''Number ...

and a designer at

Tibor Kalman Tibor George Kalman (; July 6, 1949 – May 2, 1999) was an American graphic designer of Hungarian origin, well known for his work as editor-in-chief of ''Colors'' magazine. Early life Kalman was born on July 6, 1949, in Budapest, to parents ...

's studio M & Co.

Early life and education

Oberman was born and raised in

Yonkers, New York Yonkers () is the List of municipalities in New York, third-most populous city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and the most-populous City (New York), city in Westchester County, New York, Westchester County. A centrally locate ...

in 1962 by graphic designer Marvin and painter Arline Simon Oberman. As a child, she collaborated with her parents and was paid for the commercial work she did for them. She studied study motion design and filmmaking at

Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

. Oberman has taught at

The Cooper Union The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, commonly known as Cooper Union, is a private college on Cooper Square in Lower Manhattan, New York City. Peter Cooper founded the institution in 1859 after learning about the government-s ...

, the

School of Visual Arts The School of Visual Arts New York City (SVA NYC) is a private for-profit art school in New York City. It was founded in 1947 and is a member of the Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design. History This school was started by Silas ...

and

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Currently, she teaches at the

Career

M&Co

After graduation, Oberman worked for Marcus Ratliff Inc. and shopped her portfolio around finally landing a position at

M&Co M&Co Trading Limited, trade name, trading as M&Co.) is a Scottish online retailer and former high street chain store selling women's, men's, and children's clothes, as well as small homeware products. Its head office is in Inchinnan, Scotland ...

. In collaboration with Kalman, she created work for

Knoll (company) Knoll (previously Knoll Inc.; now a subsidiary brand of MillerKnoll, Inc.) is an American company that manufactures office systems, seating, storage systems, tables, desks, textiles, and accessories for the home, office, and higher education. Th ...

, Wieden & Kennedy advertising, and (the now closed)

Florent (restaurant) Florent was an all-night diner in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan that opened in 1985 and closed in 2008. History Florent was located at 69 Gansevoort Street, one of the few remaining Sett_(paving), sett-paved streets in New York City. In ...

. Some of Obermans first works for

include covers for the 1987 November and December issues of

Artforum ''Artforum'' is an international monthly magazine specializing in contemporary art. The magazine is distinguished from other magazines by its unique 10½ × 10½ inch square format, with each cover often devoted to the work of an artist. Notably ...

, an international monthly magazine focused on contemporary art. Beginning in 1988, Oberman worked with the American rock band

Talking Heads Talking Heads were an American Rock music, rock band formed in New York City in 1975.Talking Heads

to create a number of materials, including a video casing for Storytelling Giant, as well as the music video for the song "

(Nothing But) Flowers "(Nothing But) Flowers" is a song by rock band Talking Heads. It appears on the band's final album ''Naked'', released in 1988. It was released as the album's second single. In addition to the band, the song features Kirsty MacColl on backup vo ...

." In 1991, Oberman was the first designer for the launch of Benetton’s critically acclaimed magazine,

Colors Color (or colour in Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is the visual perception based on the electromagnetic spectrum. Though color is not an inherent property of matter, color perception is related to an object's light absorpt ...

. Other M&Co works include multiple printed ads for

Isaac Mizrahi Isaac Mizrahi (born October 14, 1961) is an American fashion designer, actor, singer, television presenter and chief designer of the Isaac Mizrahi brand for Xcel Brands. Based in New York City, he is best known for his eponymous fashion lines. M ...

, and Florent restaurant. As well as album covers for musical artists

Jerry Harrison Jeremiah Griffin Harrison (born February 21, 1949) is an American musician, songwriter, producer, and entrepreneur. He began his professional music career as a member of the band the Modern Lovers, before becoming keyboardist and guitarist for ...

Laurie Anderson Laura Phillips "Laurie" Anderson (born June 5, 1947) is an American avant-garde artist, musician and filmmaker whose work encompasses performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and sculpting,Amirkhanian, Cha ...

and

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

Number 17

In 1998, Oberman co-founded the design firm under the name "

" with friend and peer Bonnie Siegler. The firm advertised its abilities in thinking,

writing Writing is the act of creating a persistent representation of language. A writing system includes a particular set of symbols called a ''script'', as well as the rules by which they encode a particular spoken language. Every written language ...

and designing and became known for their knack of understanding pop culture through wit and quirky sensibilities. In the firms seventeen year life span, the

firm A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of legal people, whether Natural person, natural, Juridical person, juridical or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members ...

served over 80 clients. Including

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

, Lucky,

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

Orbitz Orbitz.com is a travel fare aggregator website and travel metasearch engine. The website is owned by Orbitz Worldwide, Inc., a subsidiary of Expedia Group. It is headquartered in the Citigroup Center, Chicago, Illinois. Background Origi ...

ABC ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Broadcasting * Aliw Broadcasting Corporation, Philippine broadcast company * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial American ...

and more. At the firms beginning in 1998, it served one of Oberman's former clients from her time at

. For

NBC Universal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate that is a subsidiary of Comcast and headquartered at 30 ...

, the studio created logos for TV series ''

30 Rock ''30 Rock'' is an American satire, satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live' ...

'', ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show was the third installment of the '' Late Night'' franchise. Hosted by Jimmy Fallon,

'', and ''

''. The studio also designed the opening title sequence for TV series ''

Will and Grace Will may refer to: Common meanings * Will and testament, instructions for the disposition of one's property after death * Will (philosophy), or willpower * Will (sociology) * Will, volition (psychology) * Will, a modal verb - see Shall and wi ...

''. Other media work included the identity, promotion and launch advertising for radio network Air America and the creation of ''Lucky'' magazine for

Condé Nast Condé Nast () is a global mass media company founded in 1909 by Condé Nast (businessman), Condé Montrose Nast (1873–1942) and owned by Advance Publications. Its headquarters are located at One World Trade Center in the FiDi, Financial Dis ...

. Beyond

media Media may refer to: Communication * Means of communication, tools and channels used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Interactive media, media that is inter ...

work, the firm also accomplished

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), an ...

developments for multiple retail and accommodation entities. These include

The Mercer Hotel The Mercer Hotel, located at the corner of Mercer and Prince Streets in SoHo, Manhattan, New York City. It offers 73 guest rooms on six floors of a Romanesque revival building, and features Sartiano's Italian restaurant and the Submercer lounge. ...

, The Maritime Hotel, Madstone Theaters, The Zinc Building, Spice Market and Housing Works Bookstore & Cafe. In mid-2000s,

was commissioned to develop the

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's goods or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create and ...

and identity of the

National September 11 Memorial & Museum The National September 11 Memorial & Museum (also known as the 9/11 Memorial & Museum) is a memorial and museum that are part of the World Trade Center complex, in New York City, created for remembering the September 11 attacks in 2001 which k ...

of which the

building A building or edifice is an enclosed Structure#Load-bearing, structure with a roof, walls and window, windows, usually standing permanently in one place, such as a house or factory. Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and functions, a ...

and grounds were designed by contest winners,

Michael Arad Michael Arad (Hebrew: מיכאל ארד) is an Israeli-American architect who is best known for being the designer of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. He won the competition to design the memorial in 2004. Early life and education ...

and Peter Walker. In 2006, Oberman was one of the co-founders and creative directors of the website and daily bulletin Very Short List. In 2008,

served Tina Brown in designing the launch and

resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...

journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree of accuracy. The word, a noun, applies to the journ ...

publication and

blog A blog (a Clipping (morphology), truncation of "weblog") is an informational website consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries also known as posts. Posts are typically displayed in Reverse chronology, reverse chronologic ...

, "

The Daily Beast ''The Daily Beast'' is an American news website focused on politics, media, and pop culture. Founded in 2008, the website is owned by IAC Inc. It has been characterized as a "high-end tabloid" by Noah Shachtman, the site's editor-in-chief ...

". In 2012

ceased accepting clients, as Oberman and Sieglar parted ways to begin each of their owns next step. Intentionally or not, the firm lasted seventeen years. Sieglar, founding her own new studio titled "Eight and a Half". Oberman, accepting a partner position at the NY design

collective A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an e ...

Pentagram

Oberman joined

's New York offices in April 2012 as a partner in the firm. Later that year, she worked alongside Naz Sahin to redesign the website for radio show

This American Life ''This American Life'' is a weekly hour-long American radio program produced in collaboration with Chicago Public Media and hosted by Ira Glass. It is broadcast on numerous public radio stations in the United States and internationally, and is ...

. At

Oberman has served as a

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

and

director Director may refer to: Literature * ''Director'' (magazine), a British magazine * ''The Director'' (novel), a 1971 novel by Henry Denker * ''The Director'' (play), a 2000 play by Nancy Hasty Music * Director (band), an Irish rock band * ''D ...

in the development of materials for clients including film review website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 2018 film ''

Ready Player One ''Ready Player One'' is a 2011 science fiction novel, and the debut novel of American author Ernest Cline. The story, set in a dystopia in 2045, follows protagonist Wade Watts on his search for an Easter egg in a worldwide virtual reality gam ...

'', brand identity and motion graphics for the

Film Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards, originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards, and later as the Film Independent Spirit Awards, are awards presented annually in Santa Monica, California, to independent filmmakers. Founded in ...

, and PBS series ''Third Rail with OZY'', co-working space The Wing,

Hudson River The Hudson River, historically the North River, is a river that flows from north to south largely through eastern New York (state), New York state. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains at Henderson Lake (New York), Henderson Lake in the ...

& Bike NY, among others. In 2012, Oberman was hired by the band

They Might be Giants They Might Be Giants, often abbreviated as TMBG, is an American alternative rock and Children's music, children's band formed in 1982 by John Flansburgh and John Linnell. During TMBG's early years, Flansburgh and Linnell frequently performed as ...

to develop the music video for their song "Alphabet of Nations". In 2016, Oberman helmed the redesign of a new logo for American

comics a Media (communication), medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of Panel (comics), panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, Glo ...

publisher

DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...

. Oberman also headed the

ing and identity of ''

The Queen Latifah Show ''The Queen Latifah Show'' is an American television talk show hosted by Queen Latifah. The original ''The Queen Latifah Show'' ran from September 13, 1999, to August 31, 2001. The revamped ''The Queen Latifah Show'' ran from September 16, 2013, ...

.'' Oberman has also created identities for

entities including

Tina Fey Elizabeth Stamatina "Tina" Fey (; born May 18, 1970) is an American actress, comedian, writer, and producer. Known for her comedic roles in sketch comedy, television and film, Fey has received List of awards and nominations received by Tina Fe ...

’s TV series ''

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ''Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt'' is an American sitcom created by Tina Fey and Robert Carlock, starring Ellie Kemper in the title role. It premiered on March 6, 2015, on Netflix and ran for four seasons, ending on January 25, 2019. An interactiv ...

'', the 2016 film ''

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them may refer to: * ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (book), a 2001 book by J. K. Rowling * ''Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them'' (film), a 2016 film by David Yates ** ''Fantastic Beasts and Wher ...

'', and the 2017 film ''

Justice League The Justice League, or Justice League of America (JLA), is a group of superheroes appearing in American comic books published by DC Comics. The team first appeared in ''The Brave and the Bold'' #28 (March 1960). Writer Gardner Fox conceived the ...

''. Oberman also designed a new iteration of the "shield" logo for

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

and its subsidiaries. Oberman continues to develop work for

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

′s ''

.'' In 2015, she designed a

coffee table book A coffee table book, also known as a cocktail table book, is an oversized, usually hard-covered book whose purpose is for display on a table intended for use in an area in which one entertains guests and which can serve to inspire conversation o ...

entitled ''Saturday Night Live: The Book,'' which was edited by Alison Castle and published by

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt Taschen and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Tasch ...

. In 2018, the show's title sequence was redesigned by Pentagram under Emily Oberman's leadership, with custom typography and aesthetics influenced by the titles of

Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...

films and the New York post-punk scene of the '80s.

Awards and recognition

Oberman's work has been recognized by the

AIGA The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. The ...

, the

Type Directors Club The Type Directors Club (TDC) is an international organization devoted to typography and type design, founded in 1946 in New York City. Mission TDC believes that type drives culture, and that culture drives type—and is dedicated to cataloging ...

, and the

Art Directors Club The Art Directors Club of New York is an organization for art directors in New York City. It was founded in 1920, and has grown as an industry group, promoting art directors' work through exhibitions and awards, including the annual DESI award fo ...

. In 2004, she was awarded the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Award for distinguished alumni from her alma mater

. She has served on the national board of AIGA and as president of its New York chapter. While on the AIGA board she was responsible for two national conferences on design for television, DFTV.001 and DFTV.002. In 2022, she won the AIGA Medal for her influence of pop culture.

Personal life

Emily Oberman is married to designer

Paul Sahre Paul Sahre (born 1964) is an American graphic designer. He has designed book covers and created numerous illustration for ''The New York Times.'' Biography Sahre (pronounced say-er) was born in Johnson City in upstate New York, and received ...

, the couple have a set of twins.

References

External links

Emily Oberman on Pentagram

Designing Identities for TV & Film, an Interview with Emily Oberman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oberman, Emily American graphic designers American women graphic designers Living people People from Yonkers, New York Cooper Union alumni Pentagram partners 1962 births AIGA medalists