As a child, Robert Taylor designed and built an entire miniature town for his train set. In high school, he did fancy paint jobs for hot rods in the Igniters Car Club.
He continued design work all his life, his best known being the Denver International Airport logo.
Taylor, who owned Robert W. Taylor Design in Boulder, died July 19 at a Boulder hospital. He was 71. He had fought lung problems for years, said his daughter, Jennifer Czarnecki of Golden.
“Talented and humble”
“He was very talented and very humble,” said Marian Halliday of Evergreen, who knew him through John Printing, where she works.
She said the only time she ever saw Taylor brag was after a back surgery to correct his scoliosis (curvature of the spine.)
“He swaggered into the office, hands in his pockets, saying he was 3 inches taller because of the surgery,” Halliday said.
She said Taylor was extremely good as a mentor to young people, “and he was always open to learning what their ideas were. He valued what they had to say.”
Taylor often designed convention materials for large organizations, including the National Society of Women Engineers, and for 15 years he designed written materials for the World Alpine Ski Championships.
“People respected him because of his high standards,” said Clyde Mason, who once worked for Taylor and now is owner of Mason Design in Lafayette.
Robert W. Taylor was born in Greeley in December 1938 and graduated from high school there. He earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Northern Colorado and later a degree in advertising art and Design from the Colorado Institute of Art.
Back to his roots
He worked in Los Angeles for four years in the 1960s and then returned to Denver and worked for other firms until opening his own graphic design business in 1975 in Boulder. He moved the firm to Denver in 1983.
For several years and nearly up until the time of his death, Taylor, historian for the Denver Art Directors’ Club, was archiving the work of the club to give to the Denver Public Library.
He won awards both from the Directors’ Club and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He had helped found the Denver chapter, which recently named a scholarship for him.
He married Carol Sneff in 1967. They later divorced.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a grandchild and his brother, Jack Taylor of Greeley.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
