As the years go by and graphic styles and the tech used to create them fall into the folds of the past, what is known as "the Kalman/Duffy Debate" is one of those rare, strange moments in design that seems to have taken on an air of permanence. What was once the talk of the town is still talked about today. In a nutshell: At the 1989 AIGA conference in San Antonio, M&Co.'s Tibor Kalman-"design's bad boy"-took the stage. He gave a speech. And in it, he touched on a full-page Wall Street Journal ad about Joe Duffy's Duffy Design Group, which had merged with the Michael Peters Group. Kalman and others attacked it, essentially saying it put design too deeply into bed with the corporate business world. Duffy, sitting in the audience, was blindsided. After the talk, Neville Brody rushed up to Steven Heller in another session and told him what was happening outside: Kalman had challenged Duffy to a debate, and wanted Heller to moderate.
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