Peter Kleinman

Peter Kleinman was born and raised in New York City. He began painting and designing at an early age and studied classical oil painting with Vincent Trotta at Trotta's studio in Queens. He began to study drawing at the Art Students League in Manhattan at 16 years old and continued for several years until he graduated with honors (winning the Alexander Award for Art) from Francis Lewis High School. He was accepted at Pratt Institute as a Fine Arts major in 1971. Kleinman excelled at Pratt making Dean's list in 1971 and 1972. In his 3rd year he changed course and majored in advertising & communications. In 1973 he was hired by Esquire Magazine as a staff artist. Over the course of the year he designed numerous articles and collaborated on covers. Esquire also published Kleinman's original illustrations and writing. In 1974 he was contacted by the National Lampoon which was rapidly growing in popularity. The Lampoon was searching for a new Art Director to replace the outgoing Michael Gross and David Kaestle. Kleinman was 21 years old at the time and according to interviews, he thought he was not nearly ready or qualified. But after speaking first with Michael Gross and then with the editorial team of Doug Kenney, Henry Beard, Sean Kelly, Tony Hendra, PJ O'Rourke, Brian MacConnachie, John Weidman and Gerry Sussman, the Lampoon offered Kleinman the helm. Kleinman excelled in the position and against all odds, he went on to be the longest running art director in the history of the magazine. He is credited on the masthead as Art Director, Design Director, Creative Director and Editor. He was at the magazine from 1974 through 1979 and then returned in 1984 until 1988. While at the Lampoon, Kleinman also launched and art directed Heavy Metal Magazine. He designed the logos for National Lampoon's Animal House and Heavy Metal Magazine, which is still in wide use today. In addition to his design and art direction, Kleinman also conceived, photographed and illustrated dozens of covers and inside pieces as well as writing numerous articles and creating Album Covers, Paperback covers and other special projects. Under his direction the magazine won scores of awards for design and art direction from virtually every industry organization including: The Art Directors Club of NY and Boston, The A.I.G.A. The Society of Illustrators, Graphis Annual, Print Magazine, Columbia School of Journalism and more. In 1980 he designed, illustrated and produced the NY Times bestseller, "What's What?" - a 500 page visual encyclopedia of the world. During this period he opened his own agency and worked on numerous campaigns and projects until, in 1984 he was contracted to return to the Lampoon as creative director. It was a very different environment by this time. All the editors from the early years had been fired or had resigned and Kleinman was tasked with trying to breathe new life into the once great brand. Working with the two sons of the publisher and an editor they hired from High Times they tried to awaken the original spirit of the old brand but it was not to be. Kleinman's controversial "Baby in a Blender" was the tipping point and he parted ways with the Lampoon as the magazine became embroiled in attacks from the religious right. Mr. Kleinman spent a year as creative director for the World Wrestling Federation before going into corporate marketing. He art directed major campaigns and projects for global tech giant Leviton Manufacturing for 10 years. In 1999 He was named Senior VP of Marketing for a conglomerate of diverse stock cinematography libraries which he rebranded as "Sekani". In 2001 the internet bubble was getting bigger and bigger. Sekani was all set to IPO when it was suddenly acquired by Bill Gates' Corbis. Kleinman was bought out and then hired by Gates to rebrand the new company - Corbis Motion. After a year the new company was launched and Peter returned to Leviton as Director of Marketing. Working with a team of internal stakeholders and brand consultants from the world renowned Landor, Kleinman helped transition Leviton with a new logo, new brand platform and a whole new look and feel including a new website and new global brand guidelines. Under his direction, his team won numerous industry awards for Marketing communications and advertising. In 2014 Kleinman participated in the making of the documentary film "Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead" with several in-depth interviews with director Douglas Tirola, Kleinman recounts stories about his experiences at the magazine and his close friendship with artists and writers such as Doug Kenney, Ted Mann, PJ O'Rourke, John Hughes, Chris Miller and more. The film is visually tied together through Tirola's innovative use of Kleinman and Gross graphics from old issues of the Lampoon. Cleverly combining simple animation, the old Lampoon graphics help the story flow together and provide a consistent Lampoon look and feel.