April Greiman
She pioneered computer technology as a design tool and established New Wave design in the United States. Hybrid imagery, transmedia, visual communication are all words Greiman uses to describe what she does. She thinks in terms of space when she designs. She now does web design, branding, signage, and public art, and consulting on color, finishes, and textures for architectural projects.
Rudy Vanderlans & Zuzana Licko
They founded experimental design journal, designed groundbreaking digital typefaces, and embraced new design tools. These designers broke ground with Empire Magazine. They embraced the computer. Vanderlans liked the freedom the computer gave him in designing layouts and it gave Licko a disciplined method for designing type. Empire Magazine was a forum for designers, especially those interested in experimentation and technology.
Edward Fella
He created handmade lettering and design, taught design for 25 years, and embraced American vernacular in his work. Something he would always tell his students was "Do something you haven't done before." This also described his career. He worked in commercial design for almost 30 years. At the age of 47 he quit and went to graduate school at Cranbrook. After that he moved to California and taught at California Institute of Arts and his design work was anything but commercial. He liked to collage pieces of found imagery with hand-drawn type. His designs were influenced by Dada and Surrealism.
Muriel Cooper
She pioneered design for the screen, blended graphic design and computer science, and designed important books about the design profession and its practitioners. She had two careers in design, one as a print designer and one as a groundbreaking digital designer. Both revolved around MIT and both were helping her quest to make static media more dynamic.
Steven Heller
He wrote hundreds of books and articles about design, co-founded innovative educational programs, and art directed The New York Times Book Review. He is the most prolific writer on design. Through his writing he teaches, connects, criticizes, and celebrates. He designed for the first 30 years but at his core he was an educator. He co-founded Designer as an Author MFA program at the school of Visual Arts in New York.
Stephen Doyle
He experiments with typography, harnesses color's power to connect and communicate, and balances art and commerce. He was a master of type, color, and dimension. He a career on designing for major brands, and more recently has become somewhat of a sculptor, creating dimensional illustrations out of paper, wood, and found objects.
Paula Scher
She illustrates with typography and designs distinctive identities for cultural institutions and corporations. When she was a design student she couldn't get the hang of working with type, of formally positioning words and letters in a layout. She is now established as a master if persuasive, expressive, and aggressive type. She was an art director at CBS Records and Atlantic Records during the '70s. She then joined the studio Pentagram as a partner in 1991. She is a very intuitive designer.
Michael Bierut
He designs bold identities and co-founded online forum for design. He had a love for album covers and that led him down the path of graphic design. He worked for Massimo Vignelli for 10 years and then became a partner at Pentagram. He excels as an identity designer, developing comprehensive brands from the ground up as well as consulting with companies that need a refreshed look. His friendly and approachable nature fosters a sense of community among designers through his involvement and leadership in the AIGA.
John Maeda
He combines design and technology, advocates computer knowledge for designers, and leads a well-know design college. He originally graduated from MIT in computer science on his way to becoming a user interface designer. Then he read a book by Paul Rand and he decided to study graphic design in Japan and he added traditional design skills and concepts to his knowledge of computers. He also writes books to educate. His goal is "not to make the world more high-tech, but to make it more humane.
Stefan Sagmeister
He designed innovative CD packaging, takes sabbaticals to experiment, and pushes and provokes with his work. Tibor Kalman is a big influence for Sagmeister. Sagmeister doesn't see a new project as just another job; he sees it as an opportunity to create something magnificent. When he launched his own studio he wanted to focus on design for music. He designed a cover for a friend's band. For the cover he designed a red jewel box that concealed a secret image on the inside cover. This trick worked and he went on to design album covers for major record labels and artists, He designed for people like Lou Reed, Pat Metheny, David Byrne, and the Rolling Stones. He likes to push boundaries in his work.