Wednesday, April 19, 2006

R.I.P. Richard Eckersley

Many of you will remember Ricahrd Eckersley as a Mill regular and daytime Hay Market fixture.
He was also an award-winning graphic designer and pioneer in the field, working his magic from the offices of the University of Nebraska Press since 1981.
There's an obit on the NY Times web site that you should check out.
Click here, and then log on to The NY Times using:
e-mail address: gp@goodproblem.com
password: goodproblem

2 comments:

rfresh said...

Richard was so awesome. When I worked at the Mill I became friends with him. He very rarely spoke more than his daily drink order, "Double latte to go" in his humble and refined english accent, of which I coveted. I began having conversations with him on shared smoke breaks and we would talk about everything related to the excitement and strength of good design. He was and is still the only "adult" who ever talked to me about art without talking down to me. He said that I reminded him of his son, which he spoke of with extreme fondness. I didn't know how to take that because I could tell he missed his son and also wanted me to understand what his son was like at the same time. I also knew how large of a compliment it was and I was a lot younger then and I didn't quite know how to accept the compliment. When I was 24 he was teaching a masters level typography class and he asked me to sit in to audit the class. He actually wanted my opinion on his teaching style. I went for half the semester just so I could learn more about Richard as a person. I haven't spoken with him, nor had any type of interaction with him in almost a year. That makes me very sad. He was such a rad person. Damn. What the fuck, man.

Anonymous said...

I had the privilege of working with Richard and his wife, Dika, at the University of Nebraska Press. As a designer, he was an absolute genius. Respected, imitated, and admired by his peers, Richard was a gentleman in the truest sense of the word.

Such a loss for his family, his profession, his colleagues, the Press, and all of us who had the pleasure of having known him.