William “Bill” Bogusky January 12, 1934 - March 30, 2022
Boulder, Colorado - The founder of an iconic Miami design firm and longtime Boulder resident, William “Bill” Bogusky, passed away last week after a brief illness with his family at his side.
Bill helped put Miami on the national design scene when he founded a studio called the Brothers Bogusky with his brother Al, a commercial photographer. The work he did there won numerous national and international awards, including entries in Graphis Magazine, the design bible of the day. His singular design sense extended to every area of a client’s business, as when he designed everything from the logo to the players’ uniforms for a brand new local Florida basketball team – now known as the Miami Heat. And he was unswerving in the integrity of his work. An ad layout once came back from a client with the comment, “so that’s the meat, where’s the potatoes?” Bill sent him back the exact same layout wrapped around four large russet potatoes.
William Eugene Bogusky was born on 1/12/1934, grew up in Brooklyn, and spent part of his childhood in Mexico where he developed a lifelong love of the food and culture. He attended the School of Industrial Art and Pratt Institute and began his career as a layout artist when he skipped school one day and ran into an advertising executive in a coffee shop who hired him on the spot. Soon after, he was drafted into the army and shipped off to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. He quickly decided firing artillery was not for him, so he and his platoon-mate, actor
Miami, Florida - You might remember me as the homeless woman who roamed the streets of Downtown Miami with her service dog, Kilo. For all of you who befriended me throughout the years, thank you for your benevolence. I loved life despite my circumstances and, most of all, I loved my faithful dog, Kilo. If I shared personal information with you that could help find my family members, please contact the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department at (305) 545-2400.
Russ Tamblin, found quieter jobs designing the Fort’s newspaper and hosting the Hollywood stars that came to entertain the troops. That left time for driving his MG sports car to the nearby women’s college where he met a young coed named Dixie Taylor. That extraordinary woman would become his wife, partner, and love of his life for more than 50 years.
As we look back and celebrate a life we often include a list of passions. With Bill, it might be easier to start with those things that he didn’t ever do. It must be said that he never did go skydiving, and he passed without ever savoring Fugu. Beyond that, he somehow found the time to sample nearly all of what Earth has to offer. And he excelled at most of what he sampled. Beyond his career and graphic arts, he sculpted, painted, wrote poetry, and mastered photography well enough to sell countless photographs. He designed nearly 60 new type fonts that have been used by Nike and other brands. He raced and restored British sports cars, flew remote-control planes. He caught bass and bonefish so close to the world record it would make you cry, sailed schooners and high-performance sailboards – and when he couldn’t do that he built and raced remote control sailboats. He made his own wine, brewed his own beer, and cooked up the best enchiladas anybody ever tasted. He spoke fluent Spanish and was fearless in taking on any language so he fit in instantly wherever he went. Traveling all over the globe, he didn’t miss a single state and found his way to over 50 countries including Tibet, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, China, Tanzania, and Cuba.
Bill discovered skiing in the 1970s, and he fell in love with the sport and Colorado. Along with Chuck Porter and some other friends, they put together a group of Miami skiers that became known as the Bogus Ski Club. All you needed to join was airfare and a sense of humor. The films that Bill shot and edited are still treasured by those lucky enough to have copies. One late spring trip when it was 70 degrees and the snow had disappeared, he simply re-titled the video from “Skiing in Vail” to “Shopping in Vail”.
Bill and Dixie moved to Colorado from Miami in 2006, but they continued to travel the world and they frequently visited Bill’s cousin Nick in Greece. After Dixie’s death in 2014, Bill’s love for exotic destinations remained and he felt she was with him wherever he went in the world.
Bill was predeceased by his wife Dixie and his brother Albert. He is survived by his son Alex, his daughterin-law Ana, his grandchildren Zeke and Nadia, all of Boulder, and his brother Dr. Ronald Bogusky.
He kept working until the end. In fact, a logo that he did just three months ago was recently seen by a noted designer whose comment was, “Wow, that’s great. Who did it?”
The family welcomes donations to Project C.U.R.E./ Ukraine support as an expression of sympathy instead of flowers.