2014,
Gail Anderson
Gail Anderson (born 1962) is an African American graphic designer, writer, and educator. Gail Anderson’s family migrated to the Bronx, New York from Jamaica. She was the first-generation American, and first-generation college-educated in her family. In her youth, Anderson created Jackson 5 and Partridge Family pretend magazines. As she got older, she began to investigate what was then called “commercial art” as a possible career field. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts with a BFA in 1984, where she was taught by Paula Scher. She joined the faculty at School of Visual Arts MFA, undergraduate, and high school design programs, and has served on the advisory boards for Adobe Partners by Design and the Society of Publication Designers. She currently serves on the board for the Type Directors Club and is a member of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee for the US Postal Service.
From 2002 through 2010, she served as Creative Director of Design at SpotCo, a New York City advertising agency that creates artwork for Broadway and institutional theater. Where she worked under the leadership of Drew Hodges, SpotCo’s president, and her classmate from the School of Visual Arts. The following pieces were created in her tenure, and most of the credit for their success goes to the wonderful team of designers she had the pleasure of collaborating with. They included: Darren Cox, Nicky Lindeman, Bashan Aquart, Amanda Spielman, Jeff Rogers, Jessica Disbrow, Sam Eckersley, and Frank Gargiulo.
For over 14 years, she worked at Rolling Stone magazine, serving as designer, deputy art director, and finally, as the magazine’s senior art director. She arrived in the fall of 1987 to work at an enormous drafting table with a Mayline and triangle, and left in the spring of 2002, near-sighted from spending so much time in front of a computer. Almost everything she knows and loves about typography and illustration is the result of those 14 years with Fred Woodward (and before him, Lynn Staley, Ronn Campisi, and Lucy Bartholomay at The Boston Globe).
She has also worked with Steven Heller since 1990, producing books on design, typography, and illustration. They recently completed The Typographic Universe, as well as New Modernist Type, both for Thames & Hudson. Steve is co-founder (with Lita Talarico) of the MFA Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts and has co-authored/edited over 160 books on design and popular culture.
Anderson’s work has received awards from major design organizations, including the Society of Publication 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.
Works Cited
“Black (Designer) History: Illustrating Graphic Designer, Creative Director Gail Anderson.” YouTube, uploaded by Robert Bratcher, 18 Nov. 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=kArqSXqVqCk.
Rawsthorn, A. (2011, March 20). Design Gets More Diverse. The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/21/arts/21iht-DESIGN21.html?pagewanted=all
Anderson, G. A. (n.d.). Gail Anderson. Gailycurl. Retrieved May 19, 2022, from
SVA Subway Series Hall of Fame: Gail Anderson. (2018, November 15). [Video]. YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtKV5Z87byA
Episode 11: AEF Industry Conversation with Gail Anderson. (2019, December 19). [Video].
YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RmLb9EMKO1k
G. (2021, August 1). 13 African American Graphic Designers You Should Know, Part 2.
Laughton Creatves. https://laughtoncreatves.com/13-african-american-graphic-designers-part-2/
Wikipedia contributors. (n.d.). Gail Anderson (graphic designer – Wikipedia. Wikipedia.
Retrieved May 19, 2022, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gail_Anderson_(graphic_designer
Gail Anderson – SVA. (n.d.). School of Visual Arts | SVA | New York City. Retrieved May 19,
2022, from https://sva.edu/faculty/gail-anderson
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