San Francisco Visual Creative Community 1945 to 1970
Gene Tepper Industrial Designer/Artist
Artist Statement
Creative activities are selfish pleasures, inspired by curiosity, the need for discovery and essentially for my personal gratification. It is the process of exploration and the prospect of producing work, leading to further investigation, which motivates me. Because I can not conceive of any work totally devoid of context, most of my work is “idea driven”. Frequently the concept is consciously introduced as a challenge, other times the idea is discovered as the work evolves. It is the act of making which I find most satisfying. The completed work is material evidence of the memory of the act. I studied painting and sculpture in New York City at The Art Students League and the New School for Social Research from 1937 to 1940. During that period my teachers included: John Sloan, Morris Kantor, Vaclav Vytlacil, and Jose de Creeft. During five years of military service in World War II, I continued drawing and painting and showing in various exhibitions in New York and New Orleans. In 1948 I moved to San Francisco and started an industrial design practice. I continued painting and exhibiting until 1954 when the attention and commitment required to run a design office precluded allocating the time necessary to produce any serious work. In the mid ‘90s, 40 years later, with reduced design consulting activity, I began printmaking and started painting again. Since 1998 I have been devoting full time to art-related projects. In the summer of 2001 I made a 55-day round trip voyage on a freighter from Savannah, Georgia to the Mediterranean. I had the time, and a comfortable place to work, and produced a series of small gouache paintings about this very nostalgic voyage. Currently I am painting and printmaking in my studio in Sausalito and working on several pieces of wood sculpture in my shop in Bolinas.
Gene Tepper 2007
Partial List of Clients Served
Alcoa Corporation, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Ampex Corporation, Redwood City, California
Atomic Energy Commission, San Francisco, California
Burroughs Corporation, San Diego, California
California Canners & Growers, San Francisco, California
Ceremony Brandy, California
Charmwick, Inc., Burlingame, California
City of Fresno Municipal Center, Fresno, California
Crown-Zellerbach, San Francisco, California
Diablo Supplies (a Xerox Company)
Diamond International Corporation, San Francisco, California
First Federal Savings & Loan Association, Fresno, California
Fidelity Savings & Loan Association, Oakland, California
F & P Foods, San Francisco, California
Freemark Abbey Winery, St. Helena, California
Fresno Air Terminal, Fresno, California
General Electric, Phoenix, Arizona
Gray Lines, San Francisco, California
Guild Wine Company, San Francisco, California
Hewlett-Packard, Palo Alto, California
IBM, Washington, D.C.
Industrial Indemnity Company, San Francisco, California
Interface Mechanisms (Intermec), Seattle, Washington
International Paper Company, Burlingame, California
Lockheed Space & Missile Division, Sunnyvale, California
Marcona Corporation, San Francisco, California
Memorex, Santa Clara, California
Mid-West Research Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
Murison Label Company, San Jose, California
Novar Division, General Telephone & Electronics, Palo Alto, California
Omark Industries, Portland, Oregon
Radiation, Inc., Melbourne, Florida
Ralph’s Markets, Los Angeles, California
Simpson Forest Products, Seattle, Washington
Solar Energy Research Institute, Golden, Colorado
Standard Oil Company of California, San Francisco, California
Stanford Research Institute, Palo Alto, California
Sylvania Electric Products, Sunnyvale, California
Treasure Valley, Idaho
Ultek Division, Perkin-Elmer Corporation, Palo Alto, California
Unicorn Systems, Inc., Cupertino, California
Unimark Corporation, San Ramon, Californi
United States Steel Corporation, Pittsburg, California
Victor Calculator Company, Chicago,
Illinois Watkins-Johnson Company, Palo Alto, California
Awards & Exhibits
Good Design Award, Museum of Modern Art, New York City 1951
Society of Artists & Art Directors, Award of Excellence 1955
Undicesmia Triennale di Milano, Diploma di Collaborazione 1957
Society of Artists & Art Directors, Award of Excellence 1957
Society of Artists & Art Directors, Award of Excellence 1958
Art Directors Club of Los Angeles, Certificate of Merit 1959
Decima Triennale di Milano, Diploma di Collaborazione 1960
Wescon Award of Herit 1962
20th Exhibition of Advertising & Editorial Art in the West, Certificate of Merit
Wescon Award of Merit 1964
Wescon Award of Excellence 1966
Wescon Award of Excellence 1967
Bio 3, selected exhibition, 3rd Biennial of Design, Ljublijana, Yugoslavia 1968
Wescon Award of Merit 1968
Design Review (3) Excellence of Design 1969
Creativity ’70, Certificate of Distinction 1970
Wescon Award of Merit 1970
Wescon Award of Excellence 1970
Communications 20, Certificate of Distinction 1970
The Institute of Groundsmanship, International Exhibition 1970
San Francisco Communications 1971
Communications Arts Annual 1972
San Francisco Communicating Arts (5) Certificates of Excellence 1972
Package Design Magazine 1972
Communications Arts Magazine, Award of Excellence 1972
American Institute of Graphic Arts (packaging) 1973
San Francisco Communicating Arts (3) Certificate of Merit 1973
California Design, Pasadena Museum 1973
Publications: Work illustrated in:
Living for Young Homemakers
Arrendemento Moderno (Milan)
Publicite (Britain)
Interior
Design Interiors
Industrial Design
Product Engineering
Design News
Design Quarterly Etc.
Etc.
Exhibitions :
1941 Delgado Museum* (41st Annual), New Orleans
1942 Independent Artists Gallery (New York), Sculpture
1944 National Academy, NY, United Seamen’s Service
1945 3rd Annual Exhibit, United Seamen’s Service
1946 4th Annual Exhibit, United Seamen’s Service
1949 68th Annual Painting Exhibition, SF AA * *, SFMA * * *
1949 13th Annual Watercolor Exhibition SF AA, SFMA
1950 14th Annual Watercolor Exhibition SFAA, SFMA
1950 14th Annual Drawing and Print Exhibition SFMA
1950 S.F. Art Festival
1951 M.H. de Young, Group Show
1954 Annual Watercolor Exhibition SF AA, SFMA
1994 – 2003 Various Open Studio Exhibits
Furniture ‚and Product Design, Exhibits and Awards include the following:
1954 Museum of Modem Art, NY “Good Design Exhibit“
1956 Decima Triennale di Milano, Milan Italy “
1957 Undicesima Triennale di Milano, Milan Italy
1972 USIA Exhibit, Poznan, Poland
1955 – 1990-Various Trade & Technical Exhibits
Awards:
1941 Delgado Museum, New Orleans * Water Color Prize
1944 International United Seamen’s Service Prize
1945 International United Seamen’s Service Prize
1946 International United Seamen’s Service Prize
1950 S.F. Art Festival, City of San Francisco, Purchase Prize
* Now, New Orleans Museum of Art
* * San Francisco Art Association
*** Now, San Francisco Museum of Modem Art (MOMA)
Education:
Art Students League of New York
U. S. Maritime Academy, Kings Point, L.I., New York New School for Social Research, New York
Employment:
Robert Kayton Displays, 1939 Military Service: U.S. Army, U.S. Navy,
U.S. Maritime Service, 1940 – 1945
The Displayers, Inc., New York, 1945 – 1947
Walter Landor Associates, San Francisco, 1949
Gene Tepper Associates, 1951 – 1963
Tepper + Steinhilber Associates, Inc., 1963 – 1974
Gene Tepper/Design, 1974 – 1980
Tortilla Machine, Inc. (Restaurant Development) ,
President, 1979 – 1981 Gene Tepper/Design, 1981-Present
Teaching Experience:
Advisory Board, Industrial Design Department,
San Jose State California School of Fine Arts
Patri School of Art Fundamentals
Rudolph Schaeffer School of Design
Adult Education Program, San Francisco State University Academy of Art, San Francisco
Memberships:
Industrial Designers Society of America Member, Board of Directors, 1971 – 1972
Industrial Designers Society of America, Vice President, 1973 – 1974
San Francisco Society of Communicating Arts
Special Activities:
Chairman, Transportation Seminar, National IDSA Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C., October 1969
Panel Member, National Endowment for the Arts,
Washington, D.C., 1970 Speaker, USIA Design Seminar, Poznan, Poland, 1972
Speaker, USIA Design Seminar, Frankfurt, Germany, 1972
Speaker, USIA Design Seminar, Stuttgart, Germany, 1972
Speaker, National Human Factors Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, 1972
Designers Advisory Committee, State of California Product Design & Marketing Council, 1973 – 1974
Participant, Alternative Energy Seminar, New York Botanical Garden, 1974
Juror, California Design ’76, Los Angeles, 1976
One Comment to “Gene Tepper”
Leave a Comment
Nice to hear that my old Tortilla Machine friend is still alive and kicking!