Golden gained a reputation for always striving for a perfect, simple solution to the problem at hand, producing an original and distinguished design to convey the message.
William Golden was born to a Jewish family in lower Manhattan on March 31, 1911, the youngest of twelve children.
Golden returned to New York in the early 1930s, where he worked first as a promotional designer for Hearst's Journal American before joining the staff of House & Garden magazine, a production of Condé Nast Publications.
His ads emphasized the ability of radio to bring historic events to its audience in a way no other medium could at that time.
Toward this end, Golden employed the Didot typeface to use as the main type style for CBS promotional materials.
Kurt Weihs recalled that the eye was inspired by an article in Alexey Brodovitch's Portfolio about the subject of Shaker design.
John Cowden, vice president of the CBS Television Network, recalled that Stanton and Golden "shared a common philosophy about their work and in particular about advertising.
They were both perfectionists... animated by the conviction that the only possible way for advertising to command attention and be remembered was to present each message so distinctively that it would stand out in relief from all others" (Golden, Weihs, and Strunsky, 130).
The two men built a friendship on their shared belief in the effectiveness of good visual form and their ambition for excellence.
On one occasion, a layout for a rate card, submitted to the head of Golden's division, came back by messenger with a note saying, 'I don't like it very much.
Golden's answer was to tape a drawing pencil to the corner of a large layout pad and send it back with this message scribbled across the top sheet: 'Let's not!
Although he was offered the position of vice president in charge of advertising and sales promotion at CBS, Golden chose to remain the creative director of advertising and sales promotion, preferring to keep firm control of the creative aspects of the CBS image rather than moving into a more administrative role.
Golden's work ethic set an entirely new standard for American design, as he developed, directed, and sustained the visual program at CBS.
During his tenure as creative director for advertising and sales promotion, all of the ads, promotional materials, and other corporate design projects were of a consistently high aesthetic quality, despite Golden's own belief that the business and marketing objectives were always of highest importance, and aesthetic quality was secondary to these objectives.
At the height of his career, Golden's life ended abruptly at the age of 48; he died of a heart attack on October 23, 1959.
Its simplicity and versatility made it ideal for use in a variety of formats, to help build the corporate association between the Eye and CBS.
This ad also demonstrates the use of the Didot Bodoni typeface and the Eye logo together, showing the maturity of the CBS identity.
CBS's answer was that clearly television was better than both, since it was able to bring you the sound and emotion of the human voice, while simultaneously providing you images (still photos or video clips) that showed you the actual location of the news event.
These designs allow a large image to dominate and use a short and simple headline to attract the reader's attention and interest.
Through the use of good visual form, his designs brought great aesthetics to the advertisements and promotional materials he produced, while still meeting the primary objective of conveying the message in a clear, elegant, and interesting way that would draw the attention of the reader.