The graphic design industry has lost an icon as multiple outlets are reporting the death of Pentagram co-founder Colin Forbes last week at his home in Westfield, North Carolina.

Forbes was seen as a monumental figure who pioneered various typographical concepts and was pivotal in the migration of design consultancies towards things like brand identities at a time when graphic design was beginning to present itself as an asset in a world awash in corporate advertising. 

In an obituary published Thursday by The New York Times, Forbes was recalled as a “Designer’s designer” whose personal designs for brands like the Pirelli tire company, Nissan, and Jack Daniels went hand-in-hand with his role as the “principal architect” of a “partnership structure that balanced independence and collaboration” to make Pentagram into a global mainstay.

Forbes was born on March 6, 1928, and went on to graduate from London’s defunct Central School of Arts and Crafts before founding Fletcher/Forbes/Gil and then set out for America in the throes of his hometown’s Swinging Sixties era his first company in part helped to define. It was in New York in 1972 that he founded Pentagram along with partners Alan Fletcher, Theo Crosby, Mervyn Kurlansky, and Kenneth Grange. From there, in spite of his initial doubts, Pentagram went on to enjoy incredible success. Today they manage a robust portfolio of architecture firms that includes FR-EE, Rogers Stirk Harbour, and RAMSA (in addition to the AIA).

Pentagram partner Michael Gericke remembered his colleague finally as “a true statesman for design who was elegant, knowing, articulate, collaborative, and exotically European.”

“He understood how design can be an invaluable asset to commerce and be distinctive, fresh, eclectic, and driven by ideas,” Gericke shared with Archinect. “Colin Forbes shaped Pentagram's unique and enduring structure for our intuitive and idiosyncratic partners to create work as individuals, within a collective framework that has stature, collegiality, and business acumen.” 

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Wendy, and three children. Colin Forbes was 94 years old.