Rob Roy Kelly

Rob Roy Kelly was born in Nebraska on March 15, 1925, later studying design at the University of Nebraska on the G.I. Bill after serving in the Army during the Korean War. In 1948, he continued his studies at the Minneapolis School of Art (MCAD).[1][2] After graduation, he taught at the university before enrolling at Yale University for his masters in 1953, studying under Josef Albers. While at Yale, he focused on how professors' exercised were received, sequenced and critiqued.[3]

After graduation, Kelly returned to MCAD where he developed the graphic design program.[3] He later taught graphic design programs at Carnegie Mellon University, Kansas City Art Institute, Rochester Institute of Technology, and Arizona State University.[1][2] He broke his education curriculum into three areas inspired by Albers' teaching: history, technical knowledge, and understanding. These areas of learning were taught so as to build upon each other to create a complete education of design through basic principles, sequence, criteria, and repetition.[3]

Kelly amassed a large collection of American wood type, a type of moveable type designed for advertising,[4] and specimen books purchased from printers. In 1969, he published American Wood Type, 1828-1900, which was one of the first books to explore wood type in vernacular printing. While rare, Kelly allowed students to use and design with the type to learn design history. In 1966, Kelly sold the collection to the Museum of Modern Art.[2] The collection was in turn sold to the University of Texas at Austin for storage.[5] Kelly was also an expert on the history of trivets and co-wrote the major book on the topic.[6][7][8]

Kelly died on January 22, 2004 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.[2]

• American Wood Type, 1828-1900: Notes on the Evolution of Decorated and Large Types and Comments on Related Trades of the Period (1969)[9]
• 100 Wood Type Alphabets (1977)[2]