Ken Hiebert (Kenneth J. Hiebert) was born in Mountain Lake, Minnesota in 1930 to John M. Hiebert and Marie Penner; he was the oldest of three boys. His father died in a tragic accident when he was five, and Marie raised the family on her own. Ken Hiebert received a B.A. from Bethel College, Kansas in 1953. Shortly after, having taught himself photography and offset printing, he secured a post in Basel, Switzerland managing a publications printing operation. He then sought to expand his training, and from 1959 to 1964 he studied under Armin Hofmann, Emil Ruder, and Kurt Hauert at the Allegemeine Gewerbeschule Basel (AGS) in the “Fachklasse für Grafik” (Basel School of Design, Class for Graphic Design), completing its degree program.

Hiebert taught briefly at the Basel School of Design, and then at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon). In 1966 he was founding chair of the Graphic Design Department at the Philadelphia College of Art (or PCA, which later became the University of the Arts, also known as UARTS). After 33 years teaching in this program, serving as chair for many terms, he retired as Professor Emeritus in May 1999. In spring of 2001 he held the Nierenberg Distinguished Chair in the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University, conducting research on the relation of interpretive visual kinetic imagery as an extension to composed, contemporary musical form.

In 1973 Hiebert was Research Associate in the Arts at Yale University, leading an investigation of latent pattern in vernacular storefronts. He was also guest faculty at The Brissago Summer Graphic Design Program. He spearheaded the universal/Unique symposium and invitational exhibition at the University of the Arts in 1988. He received the Mary Lou Beitzel Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1990 and the Master Teacher Award of the national Graphic Design Education Association in 1991. He was awarded honorary degrees by the Maine College of Art in 2002 and the University of the Arts in 2013.

His books Graphic Design Processes (1991, Van Nostrand Reinhold) and Graphic Design Sources (1998, Yale University Press) present problem-solving processes as used in his own work and in individual projects of his students. Publications were funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Commissioned projects range from extensive corporate identity work to books, posters, environmental graphics, and website design. He worked on projects with Paul Rand at Westinghouse and IBM. Awards include AIGA 50 Best Books, AIGA Communication Graphics, AIGA/Philadelphia Awards of Excellence, New York Type Directors Club, Philadelphia Art Directors Club Gold Medal, and the Society of Typographic Arts. He is a founding member of the Philadelphia AIGA chapter and was elected a Fellow of the AIGA in 2001.

His work has been published in the Carnegie Review, Print, ID, Graphis, Design Quarterly, Design Issues, Design USA, The Computer in Graphic Design, Contemporary Graphic Design, Megg’s History of Graphic Design, and many other publications, including major design annuals.

Hiebert’s photography, including multimedia presentations, has been exhibited in one-man and group shows. The photo collage series “Twelve Eclipses,” based on Stonehenge, was featured as part of Philadelphia’s Mythos Festival in 1991. After Hiebert retired from UArts, much of his independent work became centered around links between sound and imagery, combining video, still photography, abstract graphic form, and texts with modern classical music. This work was featured in the December 2000 Profile Intermedia conference in Bremen, Germany and in the April 2001 exhibition concealing-revealing at the Regina Gouger Miller Gallery of Carnegie Mellon University. His visual counterpart to George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children was first presented in a multimedia performance with Orchestra 2001 (the Philadelphia-based contemporary music ensemble with which he was associated beginning in 1994) in its first Kimmel Center Philadelphia concert in 2002.

Ken Hiebert passed away at the age of 93 on December 18, 2024, at home in Gwynedd Valley, Pennsylvania. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, Eleanor Claassen Hiebert; by his brother Harvey; and by his daughters, Sara Hiebert Burch, Christine Hiebert, and Stephanie Hiebert; and son-in-law Elliot Burch. He is predeceased by his brother John.

Collected archives of his design, teaching, photography, and multimedia works are housed in the Cary Graphic Arts Collection at the Rochester Institute of Technology and include physical and digital examples. Individual works are in the collections of the Cooper-Hewitt Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Gewerbemuseum Basel.

Ken Hiebert Archives at Cary Collection, RIT