Creator: A Few Details About Ronné Bonder, Graphic Designer and Entrepreneur

Ronné Bonder was born Chaskel Josel Bonder on February 4, 1935 in Poland. His birthdate is from the Los Angeles Medical Examiner. The Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum said his birthplace was Poland.

The Registration of Liberated Former Persecutees, 1945–1950, at Ancestry.com, listed “Chaskel Bonder” and his father, David, who lived in Italy. Bonder’s obituary said he spent his formative years in Milan and “came to America at age 18 on the Andrea Doria speaking no English...”

On April 28, 1953, “Chaskel Josel Bonder“ and “Riezo Bonder” (age and sex unknown) were aboard the ship Andrea Doria when it departed Genoa, Italy. The manifest said they arrived at the Port of New York on May 7, 1953. Eighteen-year-old Bonder was detained at Ellis Island due to a medical issue.

Bonder resided in Brooklyn. A facebook page said he studied at Pratt Institute. The high school class information is confusing. In 1957 “Chaskel Bonder” and Harriet Krupenie obtained, in Brooklyn, marriage license number 13022. Brooklyn telephone directories listed “Ronne Bonder” at 191 East 17th Street for the years 1958, 1959, and 1960–1961. Bonder and his wife were registered voters; he was a Republican and she a Democrat.

In 1964 Bonder and Tom Carnase opened their studio, Bonder & Carnase. 

 

Art Direction, January 1967

 Art Direction, February 1967

 

Type Directors Club Thirteenth Annual Awards Show catalog was reprinted in Art Direction, June 1967.

Art Direction, November 1967 highlighted this Eastern Airlines advertisement.

A 1968 issue of Art Direction said

Peter Rauch joined Ronne Bonder and Tom Carnase to form Bonder, Carnase & Rauch, Inc., at 223 East 31st Street, New York. Rauch was AD at Carl Alley, Inc. New firm is design associate of Bonder & Carnase Studio, Inc.

Carnase left in 1969 to join Herb Lubalin and Ernie Smith. Bonder and Carnase designed several typefaces which were promoted by the studio, Lubalin, Smith, Carnase.

From 1972 to 1994, Fat Face was used on the

advertisements, What Becomes a Legend Most?

 

The above typefaces were released by the International Typeface Corporation in 1970. Fat Face was known as Fatface in the Photo-Lettering Inc.’s Alphabet Thesaurus Volume 3 (1971).

In 1967 Bonder and H. Diane Beck obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 1699. They had two children, Mark and Lisa.

Bonder designed the cover for My Rabbi Doesn’t Make House Calls (1969).

Perhaps Bonder’s biggest project was the flag design for Citicorp Center’s celebration of the Bicentennial in 1987.

In 1989 Bonder and Yvonne N. Grabert obtained, in Manhattan, marriage license number 8422. In the 1990s Bonder had the addresses 22-09 78th Street in Queens, New York; 2 Whipporwill Lane in East Quogue, New York; and 54 Cambridge Road in Great Neck, New York.

Newsday, July 4, 1999, said Bonder’s Hamptons Vodka was scheduled to be released in August. Bonder’s trademark application for Hamptons Vodka was published in the Official Gazette of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, February 22, 2000. Advertisements for Hamptons Vodka appeared in a number of publications including Los Angeles Magazine, June 2000 and Newsday, August 20, 2003.

At some point, Bonder moved to California. His address was 201 Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica.

Bonder passed away on October 12, 2015 in Los Angeles.

 

Further Reading and Viewing
American Type: Design & Designers (2004)
An A-Z of Type Designers (2006)
Classic Typefaces: American Type & Type Designers (2011)
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum


(Next post on Monday: Laurens Crossley, Letterer)