Burkey Belser, Designer Of One Of Most Important Inventions, Dies At 76
The name Burkey Belser, does it ring a bell? Well you may not recognize the name. But, you will recognize what he created.
Belser is the designer of the famous nutritional label that has been the gold standard when it comes to presenting food nutrition. Sadly, he just passed away at the age of 76, according to a post by Davidson College. But his creations and legacy will live on for decades to come.
His wife, Donna Greenfield told The Washington Post that Belser passed away from bladder cancer.
There’s How Many Calories In This?
You’ve probably tried to diet or count calories at one point in your life, right? So when you’re grocery shopping, the nutritional label is something that’s instantly recognized. Even in other parts of the world, you often find the nutritional label looking similar. Well, Burkey Belser is the person to thank for this imperative design.
Belser was an artist to its definition. He studied in southern France and was a circulation director for an art and political magazine. According to his obituary, along with his talent for design, he was a true adventurer. He embarked on a journey to Nepal from Turkey.
Eventually, he married Donna Greenfield. And the two started the firm Greenfield/Belser, which was an “an early and dominant player in legal advertising and branding,” the obit states.
Wait, He Created That Too?
Belser’s eye for clean, simple yet effective design extends beyond the standard nutritional label as well. He actually created the standard energy guide you see on all your appliances before he designed the nutritional label, the Washington Post said.
The Washington Post called Belser “the Steve Jobs of information design” in an article they wrote about him in 2014.
In the Washington Post interview with Belser, he says, “The words are left and right justified, which gave it a kind of balance. There was no grammatical punctuation like commas or periods or parentheses that would slow the reader down.”
When you look at the labels, you probably think the lack of design elements on the label made the creation process pretty easy. But in reality, it was a different type of challenge.
“Every normal tool of a designer — color, photography, illustration — that’s all stripped away, and all we have is type,” Belser said about designing the nutrtional label.
We have more on this story in today’s edition of a Few Things You Should Know.
