German-American graphic artist, painter, and architect, influential in spreading European principles of advertising in the United States.

Bayer was first trained as an architect, but from 1921 to 1923 he studied typography and mural painting at the Bauhaus, then Germany's most advanced school of design. After spending a year (1923) as a house painter, he became a master of typography and advertising at the Bauhaus and simultaneously was an art director with Vogue, an American fashion magazine. In 1928 he moved to Berlin, where he worked in advertising, painting, exhibition design, typography, and photography until 1938, when he moved to New York City and concentrated on advertising design. He became an American citizen in 1943.

In 1946 Bayer became chairman of the department of design of the Container Corporation of America and design consultant for Aspen Development, a corporation that stages an annual festival of the arts in Aspen, Colo. In the latter capacity he designed many architectural projects, such as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies (1962) and the Music Tent (1965) used during the annual festival. He also experimented in environmental sculpture (e.g., “Marble Garden” 【1955】 and “Beyond the Wall” 【1976】) while continuing his work in painting (“White Moon and Structure” 【1959】) and the graphic arts. He received a gold medal from the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 1970.