Herbert Bayer (April 5, 1900–September 30, 1985) was born in Austria and was a follower of the newly formed Bauhaus Art movement of the 1920's. He was a typographer and designer who was art director for Vogue magazine's Berlin office, until mounting pressure and persecution under Hitler's reign chased him out of the country. He had been experimenting with a number of different fonts and typefaces that remain very recognizable today as having a minimalist, Art Deco look.

Reaching New York in 1938, Bayer married and began another quite varied career in the graphic arts, as well as a stint designing buildings and movie posters when the couple eventually moved to Aspen, Colorado. It was there that he befriended oil tycoon Robert Orville Anderson (April 13, 1917 – December 2, 2007), owner of the Atlantic Richfield Company, known as ARCO. Bayer designed the company logo, handled its branding - and he also was a major influence on Anderson's love of art: at one point it is said he had amassed the largest corporate art collection in the world. Bayer's giant fountain sculpture still stands at ARCO Towers in Los Angeles, California.