Design your way

Do you know the famous graphic designers who contributed to the field of graphic design? Would you like to understand how the design world has shaped and evolved as well as the top designers who created these changes? By exploring the work of famous designers we can understand new trends. We know you’ll love exploring the biggies.

There are many graphic design artists who have helped to expand the field. Many are known in the world of professional graphic design. You’ll need to know popular graphic designers by name so that you can discuss them in conversation.

When you understand how a top graphic designer has added to the field, you can share aspects of his work with future clients. When you understand the history of contemporary graphic design, you’ll have a greater range of skills and techniques to draw upon. This will make you a more competent and skilled graphic designer.

Famous graphic designers with influence

These top graphic designers have each added a unique and innovative element to the world of graphic design, changing and transforming the field. They are the geniuses, the ones who pushed the boundaries, and the statement makers. Each has made a difference to the world of professional graphic design.

Eddie Opara

Eddie Opara is one of the contemporary graphic designers who have made a massive impact on the field. Eddie was born in London in 1972 and began studying graphic design at the London College of printing. He later moved to Yale University, where he achieved his MFA. He began working at ATG and Imaginary Forces. He later worked at 2×4 as an art director before creating his own studio, Map Office in 2005.

Motivated by the urge to give back, Eddie Opara was also inspired by his Nigerian mother’s head wraps. He is a part of Platform, which aims to encourage underrepresented designers to work as entrepreneurs and in the field of technology. He has created works of art for Prada, JWT, Studio Museum in Harlem, NYU, UCLA, Morgan Stanley and Princeton University Press.

In 2010, he joined Pentagram New York, where he is joined by his MAP design team. Here he has created works of art for Opera Winfrey, CFDA, the Andy Warhol Foundation, The Museum Tower and SCAD Museum Of Art. He has made a major contribution to American graphic design.

Eddie Opera believes that design is spiritual, and encourages designers to sketch their creative ideas in an art journal.

Stefan Sagmeister

Stefan Sagmeister started leading graphic design firm Sagmeister Inc in New York in 1993. Sagmeister moved to NYC in 1987. After attending Pratt on Fullbright scholarship, he set out to create controversy by mixing sexuality with humour. His work pushes social boundaries and challenges conceptions of indecency.

Sagmeister has worked with the Rolling Stones, HBO and the Guggenheim Museum. Perhaps his most notable work was a poster designed for AIGA where he employed an assistant to carve the text from the event into his skin. He then photographed the final image, questioning what can be done in the name of design. This designer explores new and innovative ideas every 7 years.

Paula Scher

Paula Scher is one of the prominent graphic design people in the world. One of the famous media designers, she made a name for herself at CBS records as an art director in the 1970’s and 1980’s, where she worked on album covers, poster designs and adverts. It was during this time that her unique approach to typography was recognised.

In 1991 Scher moved to Pentagram. Here she has assisted clients with developing brand identity, packaging, and signage and has more recently worked with architectural collaborations and urban graphic design.

Her work for Citibank and Tiffany & Co has been used as examples of great contemporary graphic design. Some of her major clients include The New York Times Magazine, Madison Square Park, Perry Ellis, Bloomberg and Coca – Cola.

In 1996, the identity she created for The Public Theatre won the Beacon Award for corporate design strategy. She was included into the Art Directors Hall of Fame in 1998, and in 200 won the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design.

Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd is a ‘rock star’ in American graphic design. Focusing on book covers, he has produced exceptional book covers for Knopf, where he started working in 1986. He has produced book covers for great writers like Neil Gaimon, John Updike, Dean Koontz, Haruki Murakami and James Elory, amongst many others.

One of his more famous designs is the tyrannosaurus rex design on the cover of Jurrasic Park. Not only did this design make a great image for the book cover, but was included in the movie, where it was used as the logo for the theme park.

Kidd shared that as we only know the bare bones about dinosaurs and that seemed to be the best place to start when designing the book cover. He humbly declared that it was not the cover which sold the book, but the content inside. Nevertheless, the design became one of the most iconic symbols of 1990s graphic design.

Rob Janoff

If you are looking for a professional graphic designer who has made a famous mark, look no further than Rob Janoff. Janoff was the designer behind the famous apple logo. The design process took place during 1977 and was only two weeks long.

Janoff drew on images as an apple, including the bite as it draws on computer terminology. The original rainbow design included in the apple acknowledged that this computer had a coloured monitor and was capable of plugging into a coloured television. It was also a tribute to hippie culture.

Janoff shows how the simplicity and beauty present in 70’s graphic design was able to create a timeless presence. After recreating the most recognisable brand design in history, Janoff continues to establish corporate design identities for his clients and remains one of the most influential graphic designers in the world.

Peter Saville

Peter Saville is one of the best graphic artists in the record industry. An English graphic artist, he began working for Factory Records where he created designs for bands such as Joy Division and New Order and was paid a large amount for designing the cover of Peter Gabriel’s album ‘So’. Other clients include Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark King Crimson, Pulp and Ultravox. He is known as one of the most prolific designers in the record industry.

However, Saville’s work is not limited to record cover designs. More recently he has been collaborating with fashion designers such as Stella McCartney. In 2010, he designed the football strip for the British football team.

In collaboration with Burberry’s CEO Ricardo Tisci, he created a new design logo and identity for Burberry, TB, named after the company’s founder, Thomas Burberry. He remains a cool name designer who has pushed the boundaries of graphic design.

Michael Bierut

Beirut is an artist at prestigious design firm Pentagram and not only this, but a partner as well. Before working with Pentagram, Bierut was vice president of graphic design at Vignelli. He is also a senior critic at Yale’s School of Art and a lecturer in the Practice of Design and management.

At Pentagram, Michael Bierut has worked for clients such as Disney, Benneton, the Robin Hood foundation and The New York Jets. He has also done design work on Billboard Magazine.

Bierut shares that when it comes to new designers, he values those who have interesting art in their portfolios. He explains that the very best are both talented and articulate, and are able to speak eloquently about their work.

Bierut shares that he could listen to them all day. He declares that although it is more difficult to work with designers who struggle with language, he still sees people who have a great portfolio as worthy of the time and effort to develop a talent.

Bierut has released a book titled How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry and (every once in a while) change the world. He also has a series of essays called Now You See It. He is one of the great graphic designers of our times.

Massimo Vignelli

Massimo Vignelli was a master of iconic graphic design. Vignelli died in 2014, and is one of the great graphic designers who extended the design field. Vignelli worked in a range of different design fields including advertising, branding identity and packaging design. Always precise, his work added simplicity and eloquence to the graphic design field.

Vignelli worked with IBM, Bloomingdale’s, Saks, Ford and American Airlines amongst other prestigious clients. His work forms part of collections in the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cooper Hewitt Museum.

He was a mentor to Michael Bierut. His work lives on through his famous graphic design work, including the signage and subway map he designed for New York City in 1972.

After his death in 2014, web designer Justin Reynolds wrote about the contribution Vignelli has made to the design field. Reynolds explained that although web design emerged too late in Viganelli’s life for him to make a true contribution, the simple elegance of his designs makes a significant contribution to both digital and traditional design.

Jonathan Barnbrook

Jonathan Barnbrook is a British graphic designer, film maker and typographer. His most famous graphic design work is probably the covers he did for David Bowie’s albums, beginning with Heathen in 2002. He has created a range of different typefaces, including Tourette, Exocet, Bastard, Priori and Mason. Mason which he created in 2010 was included in the Museum of Modern Art. Priori was included in the design for David Bowie’s album Heathen.

Other fonts include False Idol, Moron, Newspeak, Awe, Infidel and Shock. Most of the fonts have emotional titles. Barnbrook explained with Tourette that it is symbolic of moving beyond standard ways of speaking or using language.

Although one of the most famous typography designers, Barnbrook also expressed a love of album cover design and his work on Bowie’s cover album Blackstar was considered as good as the album itself.

Kate Moross

Kate Moross is a top designer name in London graphic design. She is the art director for Studio Moross. She has a great colour range, fluid and vibrant graphic art styles and typography techniques.

Moross is one of the best graphic artists of her time, working on branding, videos, magazine and album covers. She has even created live visuals for super band One Direction. Her work is very much in the public sphere as she has designed bus and tube pass holders for Transport for London.

Moross explains that she does not draw on traditional art or even contemporary graphic design as inspiration. Instead of searching through the past, this cool name designer gets her inspiration from her day to day life. Not the type to look through magazines or take inspiration from organised culture, Moross enjoys letting life happen.

Moments on television, a conversation with a bus driver, shopping, mood or life circumstances inspire her designs. Moross shares that we cannot ever escape culture. As a result of finding inspiration everywhere, her creativity is unbounded.

Carolyn Davidson

The Nike swoosh is a famous graphic design artwork which has become an iconic graphic design logo. Carolyn Davidson designed the swoosh while still a student. Although the swoosh looks like a tick, it is actually the wing of the Greek goddess of victory, which the company is named after.

Carolyn Davidson designed the swoosh before the ‘Just Do It’ slogan was formed. Her brief was to create a logo which seemed to be in motion. Her design needed to be unique enough to stand out from competitors such as Adidas and Puma.

At the time, Davidson was paid $35 for a design the company did not love. The swoosh has become so identifiable that the company no needs to place the brand name in advertisements or advertising campaigns. As the brand grew, Davidson was given Nike stock. Hopefully this made up for her lack of initial payment. Davidson is certainly a designer with a great influence on classic graphic design.

George Lois

If you are interested in a designer who impacted on 60’s graphic design, you need look no further than George Lois. Lois was a designer at Esquire Magazine in the US from 1962 to 1972. While Lois has had a successful career in the advertising industry he is most recognised for his often controversial Esquire magazine covers. He is well known for the Mohamed Ali cover as well as the I want my MTV campaign.

In an interview, Lois shared that his ideas always aim to stun the viewer, capturing attention and pointing to the interesting content within the magazine. Roth urges new creatives to trust their gut and go for an iconic design. If this design works out, and Lois believes it often will, then it will stand the test of time. Memorable design inspires Lois, whose clients include MTV, Tommy Hilfiger, ESPN and VH1.

Saul Bass

Saul Bass is probably one of the most famous designers in graphic design. His work went beyond logo design, poster design, and advertising. His work gained the attention of midcentury graphic design after he designed a poster for the 1954 film Carmen Jones.

His work was so impressive that he was invited to produce film credits. It was from there that Saul Bass made his way into film making. His most iconic work as a professional graphic designer was his opening scene for Hitchcock. He would later produce credits for four Martin Scorsese films Casino, The Age of Innocence, Cape Fear and Goodfellas.

Saul Bass’s credits stood out but didn’t distract from the film itself. Instead, his work would draw the viewer into the movie, enticing them to enter into this exciting realm. He will be remembered not only for his movie credits, however, but for his logos. Minolta, United Airlines, Kleenex, AT&T and many more prestigious brands owe their identities to Saul Bass.

Morag Myerscough

Morag Myerscough is famous for her bright and colourful design structures and installations. She concentrates on urban graphic design and shares that if those who are near feel happy, those who are far will come too. She lives in London and owns a company called Studio Myerscough. Clients include Royal London Hospital, London’s Barbican and the Stockholm Kulturfestival.

Morag Myerscough explains that she is motivated by the joy and happiness her work brings to others. When people feel a sense of happiness, this brings value to both communities and Myerscough herself.

Jacqueline Casey

Jacqueline Casey is a famous graphic designer most noted for her poster design while at MIT. She was recruited to join MIT in 1955 and office director in 1972. She remained at MIT until her death in 1992. While at MIT she pioneered the Institute of Design Services.

The posters she created were distinctive and elegant. Inspired by the International Typographic Style, she used bold colours and striking images. She would play with words and often used puns in her work.

Casey would depict concept through the use of creative typography. Her posters remain an inspiration in professional graphic design.

Herbert Matter

Herbet Matter was a Swiss born American graphic designer. Matter began his graphic design work in Paris, where he soon developed a distinctive style. However, he was forced to move back to Switzerland as he did not have proper papers. Here he worked for the Swiss Travel Office. He travelled to America with a Swiss ballet company and remained in New York once the troupe returned home.

Matter became a well known American photographer who has produced excellent work. He has made a significant contribution to the graphic design field. He has taught photography in a graphic design program, taught at Yale and a brilliant graphic designer. As a photographer he worked for Harper’s Bazaar and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Alvin Lustig

Alvin Lustig is a famous graphic artist who is also one of the first graphic art pioneers. He worked as a book designer, typographer and magazine designer. He also worked with textile design and interiors. His work has had a long term impact in the field of graphic design.

Lustig was born in Denver but his family moved to Los Angeles when he was a boy. Here he learned poster design, sculpture and modern art. He started out working in printing and typography but soon began to focus his talents in the art field. He began designing book covers for a company called New Directions.

In 1944 he moved to New York to work on his classic graphic designs. Here he worked for the Magazine Look for 2 years. He was a creative artist who took a holistic approach to his work. While in New York he began to explore interior designs. He later worked on shopping centre signage as well as cartoon characters. His work was revolutionary, changing the face of graphic design while holding on to his identity as a Modernist designer.

Lillian Bassman

Lillian Bassman was an inspiring woman and one of the great graphic designers. She was a child of free thinking immigrant parents. She began working as an illustrator and textile designer. She was then mentored by Alexey Brodocitch while working with Harpers Bazaar. She began working as a photographer, capturing unique images which added an elegant sophistication to the field of graphic design.

She later became an art director for young girl’s magazine Junior Bazaar. Here developed classic graphic designs which combined images with poetry. The result was highly effective. Her photography work focused largely on models in lingerie or cosmetics. She is definitely one of the number 1 graphic design influencers of the 20^th Century.

Paul Rand

Paul Rand was born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended both Pratt and Parsons School of graphic design in New York City. Ultimately, he remained uninspired and ended up teaching himself the fundamentals of graphic design. He studied the works of famous graphic designers A.M. Cassandre and Lazlo Moholy – Nagy through European magazines.

Rand began his career designing covers for Direction magazine. He later pioneered iconic corporate logo designs for companies such as IBM, ABC, Yale University and Enron. He has worked with GQ magazine, managed fashion pages for Esquire and written books on graphic design. He remains one of the most famous graphic design artists in the world.

Ending thoughts on these famous graphic designers

By following the work histories of these graphic designers you can learn a range of different styles and techniques. You will be able to come up with work which is both unique and breath taking. You will also learn different ways of working in design which you will be able to use to produce a range of inspiring designs which can be used to produce some wonderful concepts.

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