“Catalog”

"Many consider Whitney to be the father of motion graphics. Although commercial work was not his ambition (he was a highly accomplished artist), its graphic and typographic possibilities resonated nonetheless, and he was instrumental in giving birth to a new design field. In 1957, Whitney began building drawing machines from outmoded analogue military computers, seeking to create a correspondence between animated imagery and music. He produced hundreds of animation cells with the device, some of which Saul Bass repurposed to create the spiraling effects in his titles for the 1958 Alfred Hitchcock film 'Vertigo'. Whitney’s other commercial work included projects during the 1950s at UPA, the animation studio known for cartoons including 'Mister Magoo'. In 1956, he joined the Eames Office, where he was part of the team that created the multiscreen presentation 'Glimpses of the U.S.A.' In 1960, Whitney formed Motion Graphics, and his new company’s promotional reel,'Catalog', demonstrated the versatility of his animation machine and led to commercial assignments ranging from titles for TV programs such as the 'The Dinah Shore Show' and the Chrysler-sponsored 'Bob Hope Show' to portions of the film 'To the Moon and Beyond', presented at the New York World’s Fair of 1964–65. The overall trippy-ness of Catalog made it a classic of the psychedelia subculture of the 1960s." —Louise Sandhaus, Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots: California and Graphic Design 1936-1986, p 158