A Professor's Death Leaves a Large Gap in the Design Department

BY GLEN STARKEY

John Mendenhall left the party early, unexpectedly. Now his house is empty, his office cleaned, his studio catalogued and packed away. The popular Cal Poly graphic design professor, author, and robot maker died of natural causes June 27 during one of his many working holidays in Europe. He was only 48.

He will be missed on many fronts: by those closest to him, his family and friends; by his colleagues and many students at the university; by graphic designers everywhere who continue to use any number of the 13 books he'd written over the past 14 years.

"Everyone's lost someone in an unexpected way–a car accident or something," said Cal Poly Art & Design Department professor Eric Johnson. "It's always a shock, especially when they're so young, as John was. He was a good friend, and there's an empty spot in my life without him. I really miss him very much."

Johnson is not alone in his sentiments; John Mendenhall touched many people. His neighbors Sam and Joanne Miller remember Mendenhall as a vivacious punster always ready with a wry comment.

"John was a really fun person," said Joanne Miller. "He was brilliant. He was witty. He always had a lot to talk about. He liked to travel. He had a passion for his teaching. He was also very focused. When he got into his robots, he really got into his robots. My husband and I would go robot parts shopping with him at garage sales, swap meets, and junkyards. Basically John loved life. He had a passion for life. He was very creative. He was a real free, loving spirit.

"I remember he didn't like to cook," continued Miller. "He used to say his meal was Cabernet and popcorn, which covered his fruit and fiber for the day. He always had something witty to say."

Since Mendenhall's passing, the Millers have taken in his beloved dog, Laszlo, named after Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, a famous abstract photographer-designer from the Bauhaus school.

"He loved day trips," continued Miller. "We'd walk our dogs together. And he loved to travel with Laszlo; he took that dog everywhere."

As noted, Mendenhall was well-known internationally throughout the graphic design world, largely because of his books on trademark design and history.

"He was a one of a kind," remembered good friend and colleague Dan Piel. "I didn't realize how multitalented he was–a terrific artist, and he wrote all these books! He was the only faculty member, frankly, who ever published in our department. He was extremely self-actualized. He broke new ground."

"Of all the people in the department," added Johnson, "he was one of the best-known, in design especially, because so many people used his books. They are a tremendous resource.

"And he was an integral part of the development of the Art & Design program, which is one of the most competitive programs of its kind in the state; we have several hundred applicants for 40 spots a year. He also helped keep the program current and up to date with changes and developments in the field. John actually started the History of Design course, and not many universities have this class, which is unusual and which most students find very valuable."

As a teacher, Mendenhall was extremely lively. Said colleague Mary LaPorte: "John was a delightful person, he loved ‘isms,’ if you will; he'd bounce into his classes and say, 'I'm here, let's get going,' or 'Ready set go.' He was always up."

Johnson recalled how important teaching was to Mendenhall: "He had his students who, I think, as much or more than his friends are going to miss him. People who had his classes are going to be greatly affected. You don't know what you had till it's gone, and people are really going to realize what a loss this is. His humor...he didn't take things too seriously; he kept the big picture in mind, didn't sweat the small stuff."

Anonymous students’ comments best sum up Mendenhall's value to the young scholars:

"I love this class! I feel comfortable and am not afraid to present my work. Professor Mendenhall is zany and funny and makes me want to come to class. He offers advice for how to accomplish each assignment and always speaks to me when I need help."

"I found Mendenhall really inspiring. Not only is he passionate about graphic design and always excited about our lecture topics, but he is overall a very smart teacher. Every design student I talk to loves this class and would like to take more design history."

"No one had done a course like that; he's the only one who did it," said Piel of History of Design. "And it wasn't your usual boring history class. He perked it up with all kinds of stuff. He was so full of life and energy."

Mendenhall was a leading authority on design history, and his books were extensive compendiums of trademarks and designs from around the world. He would search out, document, research, and catalogue trademarks for inclusion in his ongoing series of books. And, by all accounts, he was visionary in determining what sorts of images would later become pop culture icons.

"Being that his background was design history and his father a well-known industrial designer from Chicago, John had a keen interest in American pop culture," said LaPorte. "He was one of the first people I knew of to collect happy-face symbols–on mugs, shirts, paraphernalia. He loved pop phenomenon. He had a sensibility for things that would be popular and trendy in American culture.

"He wasn't tuned into that for monetary reasons; he was able to recognize some of these trends for their surface value, what they were worth intrinsically. So the books he put together were collections of design changes. So when you're doing things like cleaning out his office, as I've been doing this summer, you come across cultural icons like Joe Camel. He was collecting Joe Camel while it was still a moral issue in this culture; that's the kind of insight he had.

"Yes, he was a little eccentric," continued LaPorte. "He was ahead of the rest of us in recognizing symbols and pop culture. He was a professional designer, a fine artist in his own way with his robots, which bespeak our industrialized and technologically advanced civilization. He toyed around with those ideas."

Over the past few years Mendenhall had become increasingly interested in robotry and had built nearly 30 working robots himself, as well as collecting others. A few of his creations will be on display over the next month as part of "Get Set," the Cal Poly Art & Design Department's faculty show, which he helped name before his untimely passing.

The robots are charming and whimsical. All function in some way or another, either by lighting up or moving via little whirling motors hidden inside the found-object assemblages. One year from now a full retrospective of Mendenhall's robots and graphic design work will be on display at Cal Poly. LaPorte was in charge of organizing and packing up his studio, which has been heavily documented and catalogued so that it can be re-created as an installation at next year's show.

"We've gone so far as to sweep up the dust, dirt, and dander into Ziplock bags," said LaPorte. "Everything will be rebuilt just as he left it."

Perhaps what will be missed most is Mendenhall's humor, which every subject interviewed for this story mentioned.

"He was a funny guy; of course he had a brilliant mind," said Piel. "He'd kid you. He was a wisecracker. Oh, he loved sexy–not dirty jokes, exactly–but he could joke on any subject. He loved to kid around. I have a couple pieces of his art. He made a robot for me. He did that for several people, made a robot using some of their own collectibles."

"He certainly was brilliant colleague to work with," said LaPorte, "because he had more of a long-range plan. He didn't focus on the little local fires. He would do what was necessary to deal with them, but he was a great colleague because he had vision. He traveled a lot for his books; that perspective helped us a lot.

"He characteristically had a little bit of a flippancy in his day-to-day interaction, but I always found it delightful. He would carry that into the classroom and the students loved that. He was refreshingly youthful, buoyant. He had a good-natured irreverence." Æ

Glen Starkey hopes to survive his dog.