Herbert Bayer (1900–1985) was a versatile artist whose influence on the Bauhaus spanned his work as a student, teacher, and lifelong advocate for integrating the arts. After beginning architectural studies in Darmstadt in 1919, he joined the Bauhaus in Weimar in 1921, studying with Vasily Kandinsky and creating the all-lowercase Universal alphabet that became a hallmark of the school’s visual identity. Returning to the Bauhaus from 1925 to 1928 in its new Dessau location, he taught advertising, design, and typography, helping advance the use of photography in graphic communication. After leaving the school in 1928, Bayer spent a decade in Berlin as a commercial artist, producing innovative photographs and photomontages shaped by the New Vision movement championed by László Moholy-Nagy. In 1938 he emigrated to the United States at the invitation of Alfred H. Barr, Jr. to design MoMA’s exhibition Bauhaus: 1919–28, later collaborating with Edward Steichen on influential photographic installations. During his years in America he also worked in Chicago, where he contributed to major design and advertising projects and began his long association with forward-thinking corporate patrons. He spent the remainder of his career in the United States, most notably in Aspen, continuing his work as a designer, artist, and environmental planner.