Art’s unsung heroes: designers

THANKS to the Times for shedding some much-needed light on a wonderful design exhibit, “Masters of Graphic Design: Catalog Covers of UCLA Extension” at the Pacific Design Center [“Bold Designs in Your Mailbox,” June 24].

While our fellow creators in entertainment, fashion, architecture and fine arts are regularly reviewed and listed in L.A. media, design is often overlooked.

Although design is a part of all of the disciplines above, it is often so seamlessly integrated into the whole that it becomes organic and invisible. Yet when it comes time to take a product or idea to market, design takes center stage, whether it be on the printed page, your computer screen or in the world around us. Every product, every publication, every sign or billboard, every advertisement -- all these are designed. And their import to business cannot be underestimated, especially here in Southern California, where we all work to grow the world’s largest creative economy.

MICHAEL LEJEUNE

South Pasadena

Lejeune is the creative director of Metro (the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Authority) and a vice president of the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) in Los Angeles.