Important Designers

Fred Woodward was born in a small town in Mississippi in 1953. At Mississippi State University he first found others who were interested in art and design. In his third year he decided to become a designer. He worked as an art director in many places. His style became cleaner and more restrained. In 1987 he started working for Rolling Stone magazine where he would spend the next 14 years. He oversaw around 400 magazine issues while he worked there. He helped to bring Rolling Stone magazine back into being a well recognized magazine just when it was about to fizzle out. By the year 2009, he was nominated for 8 National Magazine Awards including General Excellence, Design, Photography, and Photo Portfolio. 

Gail Anderson is a New York based designer. She is also a writer and an educator. She works at Anderson Newton Design where her partner is named Joe Newton. In 2002-2010 she served as a Creative Director of Design at SpotCo which is a NYC advertising agency. It creates artwork for Broadway other theaters. During 1987-2002 she worked at Rolling Stone magazine where she was a designer, deputy art director, and senior art director. She also designed for The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine and Vintage books. She has received many awards from the Society of Public Designers, The Type Directors Club, The American Institute of Graphic Arts, The Art Directors Club, Graphis, Communication Arts, and Print. In addition, it has also been included in the permanent collections of the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Milton Glaser Design Archives at the School of Visual Arts. Anderson has been featured in magazines that include Computer Arts (UK), designNET (Korea),kAk (Russia), STEP Inside Design, and Graphic Design USA. She is the co-author of “The Typographic Universe” and many other books. She teaches in the School of Visual Arts MFA and won the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Medal from the AIGA.

Tibor Kalman was born in 1949 in Budapest, Hungary and died in 1999 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. He lived in Manhattan usually but wished to spend his last day in Puerto Rico after four years with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He was a designer whose innovative ideas about art and society helped change the way a generation of designers and their clients viewed the world. He founded M&Co which was a revolutionary New York design firm that became a graphics resource to clients. It conceived and manufactured watches and clocks with quirky faces and rearranged numerals, products that helped start fashion. He was also the editor in chief of Colors magazine, an art director and a director of music videos and television commercials. He was considered the bad boy of graphic design. 

 

Alex Brodovitch was born in the Russian Empire in 1898 and then moved to Moscow during the Russo-Japanese War. When he was 16, he left his dream of going to the Imperial Art Academy to join the Russian army. He ran away often to escape school and join the fight. When him and his family were reunited after the army they moved to France. Alex then wanted to be a painter and painted houses to make money. In Paris he found himself becoming a designer and began sketching designs for textiles, china, and jewelry. He did layouts for an art journal and for an influential design magazine. There was no art director so he was able to influence the look of the magazine. He won first place for a poster in an artist competition where Picasso only received second place. He was later asked to head the  Pennsylvania Museum School of Industrial Art’s Advertising Design Department where him and his wife and son moved to. His task was not a small one. He was asked to bring American advertising design up to the level of Europe’s. He was an abstract teacher who toured his class around the city and asked them to graphically show what they saw. His students loved him. 

Neville Brody was born April 23rd in 1957 in London. He grew up learning fine art. He attended Hornsey College of Art. Brody then started a three year B.A course in graphics at the London College of Printing. His tutors disliked his experimental ways. He almost got thrown out of the college for putting a Queen’s head sideways on a postage stamp design. He worked as the Art Director for The Face magazine when it was first published. He also worked for magazines like City Limits, Lei, Per Lui, and Arena. The newspapers he worked for were The Guardian and The Observer. He works as a graphic designer with his business partner Fwa Richards who launched his own design practice in 1994 in London. There have since been studios opened in Paris, Berlin, and Barcelona. The company creates new visual identities for all different types of clients. He recently redesigned BBC in 2011 and created a new font for The Times. He also has recently launched a new look for a champagne brand. He also was one of the founding members of FontShop. 

David Carson was born in 1954 in Texas. He is a graphic designer, art director, and a surfer. He uses experimental typography and has been known for his innovative magazine design. He worked and contributed to design during the grunge typography era. In high school in Florida he was the class president for three years. For college he went to San Diego State University where he graduated in Sociology. He took a two weeks graphics course at the University of Arizona where he first learned about design. He also claimed the title for 9th best surfer in the world. Carson was immersed in the artistic and bohemian culture of South California which was where he started to experiment with Graphic Design. For a few months he attended the Oregon College of Commercial Art before he took an internship with Action Now magazine. After attending a three week workshop in graphic design in Switzerland, Hans-Rudolf Lutz became his influence. He was the art director for Transworld Skateboarding magazine and Transworld Snowboarding magazine. His first significant impact on the graphic design world was from Beach Culture. One of his articles on a blind surfer opened with a two-page completely black spread. He was considered innovative. After working at Ray Gun for a bit, he opened his own studio, David Carson Design, in New York City. He has worked for major brands like Pepsi, Toyota, American Airlines, Nike, and many more. He currently lives and works in New York City. Carson has won over 230 Awards for his design work.