Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Seymour Chwast's style. He knows how to play.

http://www.aiga.org/medalist-seymourchwast/

His strength is not in rendering, like so many of the “sentimentalists” before him, but in concept and design. A beguiling sense of humor underpins his illustration, and a keen understanding of traditional design governs his method. Chwast and his Push Pin colleagues helped reintroduce the long divorced principles of illustration and design. Moreover, he helped formulate a new graphic lexicon based on knowledge, appreciation and reapplication of past styles and forms—one that has had long term effects on graphic design.

Born in 1931 in The Bronx, New York, Chwast began drawing in earnest at the age of seven, and soon attended WPA-sponsored art classes. He became profoundly aware of the difference between museum and street art and seemed to instinctively prefer the allure of billboards and advertisements to Picassos and Mondrians. Influenced by Walt Disney, the Sunday funnies and serial movies, he gave life to his own cartoon heroes, including “Jim Lightning” and “Lucky Day.” His family moved to Coney Island, where he was enrolled in Abraham Lincoln High School. On the outside this was an ordinary New York City public school, but inside it was a hotbed of graphic design education.