Contract Magazine - January/February 2017 - 63

PHOTOGRAPHY: PATRICK ST-ARNAUD (OPPOSITE, TOP); COURTESY VANDERBYL DESIGN (ALL OTHERS THIS SPREAD)

and was a drill sergeant. While on reserve,
he worked for G. Dean Smith, a graphic designer
who was responsible for the iconic "Circle 7"
ABC television station logo. When the recession
of the early 1970s caused Smith to close his firm,
Vanderbyl decided to strike out on his own.
In 1973, he started Vanderbyl Design.

Vanderbyl has designed
a number of showroom
and exhibition interiors for
Teknion (all photos on this
spread) in locations including
Atlanta (above and above,
right), Los Angeles (top two),
Montreal (opposite, top), and
Chicago (opposite, bottom
right), as well as for IIDEX
2009 in Toronto (opposite,
bottom left).

Creating consistency for clients
Over the course of the next decade, Vanderbyl
slowly built up his clientele. His initial break
into the commercial design industry came
in the early 1980s when the North Carolina-based
contract furniture company HBF contacted him
to design a simple postcard advertising a trade show
booth. At the time, HBF was called Hickory
Business Furniture and made very traditional
pieces, including wingback chairs. "I saw the
potential of the company," Vanderbyl recalls.
Castro Valley for 38 years, and his mother, Jean,
"Even though they only asked me for a postcard,
was a stay-at-home mom. As a child, he drew all
the time and built things out of cardboard. He aspired I presented them with an entire program: a new
logo, tagline, catalog, advertising campaign, and
to be an architect but was discouraged by a high
ideas for new products. I was hired on the spot."
school counselor, who pointed to his low grades
His graphic eye proved equally adept when it came
in math and laughed. At CCA (then called the
to interior design. A few years later, he created
California College of Arts and Crafts), he studied
an eye-catching booth for HBF at NeoCon in Chicago.
graphic design and steeped himself in the
Winner of the award for best small showroom,
International Style and the Bauhaus. At the same
the space had white columns surrounding a massive
time, he was also smitten by the very expressive
reception desk.
work being produced by Milton Glaser and other
During the process of what would become
illustrators at New York's Push Pin Studios, whose
psychedelic posters were emblematic of the 1960s. a complete rebranding of the business, Vanderbyl
helped convince the company to change its name
"There were these two different schools of thought-
the Swiss [International Typographic Style], which to the more contemporary HBF. To revive its product
line, he introduced the HBF leadership to other
was very rational and regimented, and then these
high-level architects and designers, including
crazy New Yorkers who were doing Bob Dylan
Massimo Vignelli, Robert A.M. Stern, and Barbara
posters," says Vanderbyl.
Barry. This narrative-a small entrée that leads
After graduating from CCA, during the thick
to an increasingly larger role in reinvigorating
of the Vietnam War, he joined the Army Reserves
contract

Contract Magazine - January/February 2017

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