Peter Kleinman

Art Director, illustrator, and writer for the National Lampoon (1974-1979 then 1984-1988) and Heavy Metal Magazine. He is the creator of National Lampoon’s Animal House logo (a 1978 American comedy film directed by John Landis) and comic magazine Heavy Metal’s logo. In 1974, Michael Gross and Doug Kenney chose a young designer from Esquire named Peter Kleinman to succeed the team of Gross and David Kaestle. During his Lampoon tenure, Kleinman was also the art director of Heavy Metal magazine, published by the same company. Kleinman designed the logos for Animal House and Heavy Metal. Kleinman left in 1979 to open an ad agency. In 1984, Kleinman returned as creative director and went back to the 1970s logo and style, bringing back many of the artists and writers from the magazine’s heyday. He left four years later to pursue a career in corporate marketing. At that time, the National Lampoon magazine entered a period of precipitous decline.