Harry Marks

Harry Marks is considered by many to be the founding father of modern broadcast design. He began his career as a typographer and publications designer at Oxford University Press. At age twenty, he left his native soil of England and moved to San Francisco where he worked with the University of California Press. In the mid-1960s, he moved to Los Angeles and landed a job at ABC-TV, where his assignment was to improve the on-air graphic appearance of the network. He is also known for his work as an independent graphics consultant, including six years of on-air graphics for NBC-TV, brand packaging for international TV networks, and an Emmy-winning main title for Entertainment Tonight. Harry is well known for his innovative use of emerging technologies, such as computer graphics and slit scan. He has earned nearly every award in broadcast design and promotion, including an Emmy and the first Lifetime Achievement Award from the Broadcast Design Association. In 1984, Harry had the notion of facilitating a gathering of people from the converging worlds of technology, entertainment, and design, so he partnered with Richard Saul Wurman and created the TED Conference. Now retired, Harry lives in Pebble Beach on California's central coast, where he spends his time on community projects and his own interests, including cooking, cameras, and computers.