Barbara Torode

Barbara Torode, an artist and graphic designer, died in her sleep January 3, 2019. She was 80. Her work was from as large as a logo for the World Bank to menus for a small Chinese Gourmet restaurant. She was born in the Queens neighborhood of New York City. Her father was a merchant seaman from the island of Guernsy in the English Channel. He jumped ship in New York, where he met her mother, who had grown up on the plains of North Dakota. Torode came to Philadelphia to attend the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts. She then was an art director for several advertising agencies, notably N.W. Ayer & Sons in Philadelphia and Benton & Bowles in London. She liked to tell stories of various adventures, such as making x-ray photos of an elephant for a DuPont film advertisement, or traveling through the Irish countryside with a film crew, making movies of cow herds for Irish Dairy Board television commercials. Later, she opened her own agency in Philadelphia, Torode Design Associates, creating advertising, audio-visuals and printed material for such clients as Merck and Mellon Bank and designing books ranging from medical texts to elementary school workbooks. Through the years, she also taught classes at her alma mater, and at Moore College of Art and Princeton University. In 1976, she designed a Bicentennial Year birth certificate for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, issued to all babies born in the state that year. She also wrote poetry, which she often read at poets’ gatherings. Torode is survived by her husband, James Smart, a writer; step-children Stephen Smart (Alene) and Leslie Zavodnick (Steven); three step-grand-children; two step-great-grandsons; two brothers and her former husband, Peter Paone. Friends and family are invited to share memories at a gathering on Sunday, February 10, 2019, 1PM at the University of the Arts, 320 S. Broad St., (at Pine St.) Phila., PA 19102.