Bayer was a painter, designer, photographer and typographer. He was born in Austria and studied architecture with Professor Schmidthammer in Linz before attending the Bauhaus from 1921-1923. Like Breuer, he was one of the few students promoted to master status in 1925, eventually heading the workshop for print and advertising. He created the Universal typeface, consisting only of lower-case letters which gave much of the Bauhaus publicity its distinctive look. Bayer was a close friend of Breuer's and the two travelled together frequently, including a trips to Greece in 1934. Bayer emigrated to the US in 1938. He helped to shape American perceptions of the Bauhaus through his work on the exhibition "Bauhaus 1919-1928" at the Museum of Modern Art. Breuer and Bayer collaborated on unsuccessful proposals for the 1939 World's Fair and for an experimental plastics laboratory. In 1946, Bayer moved to Aspen, Colorado, where he consulted on proposals for the development of the city. Bayer introduced Breuer to clients such as Walter Maas, James Hopkins Smith, Jr. and Walter Paepcke, all of whom commissioned houses.