Alexander Isley

Last updated

Alexander Isley (born November 16, 1961) [1] is an American graphic designer and educator.

Contents

Early life and education

Alexander Isley was born in Durham, North Carolina and studied at Durham Academy, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (high school visual arts diploma).[ citation needed ] Isley initially wanted to become an architect like his father but discovered design upon enrolling in North Carolina State University, where he received a degree in Environmental Design. [2] [3] He later attended the Cooper Union School of Art in New York and received a BFA in graphic design. [2]

In 1994, Isley married Veronica Burke. [4]

Career

In 1984, Isley joined Tibor Kalman's influential M & Co. as senior designer. He held this position until 1987, when he joined Spy Magazine in 1987 as the first full-time art director. At Spy, he was tasked with building upon Steven Doyle's initial formatting and was awarded gold and silver medals from the Society of Publication Designers. [2] [5] In 1988, he founded Alexander Isley Inc. in New York City. [6] In 1995, Isley moved the studio to Redding, Connecticut. [2] The studio has worked on branding projects for Youth Service America, Armani Jeans and Goodwill, among others. [7]

In 2004, Isley became the president of AIGA New York and an AIGA Fellow in 2013 after being a board member from 1988 to 1990. [2] [8] [9]

In addition to his professional career, Isley taught Design and Typography at the School of Visual Arts from 1988 to 1990; Exhibit Design at the Cooper Union in 1992; and was a Critic and Lecturer at Yale from 1996 to 2011. [10]

Honors and awards

Archives

The Alexander Isley Papers [16] at the Special Collections Research Center, North Carolina State University Libraries, Raleigh, covers Isley’s full career and includes initial concept explorations, original artwork, completed materials, and correspondence. An extensive selection of Isley’s poster designs are in the collection of the Museum of Design, Zürich.

Bibliography

Related Research Articles

<i>Emigre</i> (magazine) American graphic design magazine (1984–2005)

Emigre was a (mostly) quarterly magazine published from 1984 until 2005 in Berkeley, California, dedicated to visual communication, graphic design, typography, and design criticism. Produced by Rudy VanderLans and Zuzana Licko, Emigre was known for creating some of the very first digital layouts and typeface designs. Exposure to Licko's typefaces through the magazine lead to the creation of Emigre Fonts in 1985.

Zuzana Licko is a Slovak-born American type designer and visual artist known for co-founding Emigre Fonts, a digital type foundry in Berkeley, CA. She has designed and produced numerous digital typefaces including the popular Mrs Eaves, Modula, Filosofia, and Matrix. As a corresponding interest she also creates ceramic sculptures, textile prints and jacquard weavings.

Rudy VanderLans is a Dutch graphic designer, photographer, and the co-founder of Emigre Fonts with his wife Zuzana Licko. Emigre Fonts is an independent type foundry in Berkeley, CA. He was also the art director and editor of Emigre magazine, the legendary journal devoted to visual communications from 1984 to 2005. Since arriving in California in 1981, he has been photographing his adoptive Golden State as an ongoing side project. He has authored a total of 11 photo books on the topic, and staged two solo exhibits at Gallery 16 in San Francisco.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobias Frere-Jones</span>

Tobias Frere-Jones is an American type designer who works in New York City. He operates the company Frere-Jones Type and teaches typeface design at the Yale School of Art MFA program.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">April Greiman</span> American designer

April Greiman is an American designer widely recognized as one of the first designers to embrace computer technology as a design tool. Greiman is also credited, along with early collaborator Jayme Odgers, with helping to import the European New Wave design style to the US during the late 70s and early 80s." According to design historian Steven Heller, “April Greiman was a bridge between the modern and postmodern, the analog and the digital.” “She is a pivotal proponent of the ‘new typography’ and new wave that defined late twentieth-century graphic design.” Her art combines her Swiss design training with West Coast postmodernism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bierut</span> American graphic designer

Michael Bierut is a graphic designer, design critic and educator, who has been a partner at design firm Pentagram since 1990. He designed the logo for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Steven Heller (design writer)</span> American art historian

Steven Heller is an American art director, journalist, critic, author, and editor who specializes in topics related to graphic design.

J. Abbott Miller or Abbott Miller is an American graphic designer and writer, and a partner at Pentagram, which he joined in 1999.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Lupton</span> American graphic designer

Ellen Lupton is a graphic designer, curator, writer, critic, and educator. Known for her love of typography, Lupton is the Betty Cooke and William O. Steinmetz Design Chair at Maryland Institute College of Art. Previously she was the Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York City and was named Curator Emerita after 30 years of service. She is the founding director of the Graphic Design M.F.A. degree program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where she also serves as director of the Center for Design Thinking. She has written numerous books on graphic design for a variety of audiences. She has contributed to several publications, including Print, Eye, I.D., Metropolis, and The New York Times.

Lorraine Wild is a Canadian-born American graphic designer, writer, art historian, and teacher. She is an AIGA Medalist and principal of Green Dragon Office, a design firm that focuses on collaborative work with artists, architects, curators, editors and publishers. Wild is based in Los Angeles, California.

Edward Fella is an American graphic designer, artist and educator. He created the OutWest typeface in 1993. His work is held in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, the Brauer Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art. He was the recipient of the 2007 AIGA Medal. He was also the recipient of a Chrysler Award in 1997. Curt Cloninger called Fella "the contemporary master of hand-drawn typography."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marian Bantjes</span> Canadian graphic designer

Marian Bantjes is a Canadian designer, artist, illustrator, typographer and writer. Describing her work as graphic art, Marian Bantjes is known for her custom lettering, intricate patterning and decorative style. Inspired by illuminated manuscripts, Islamic calligraphy, Baroque ornamentation, Marian Bantjes creates detailed work, often combining the forms of her disparate influences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Fili</span> American graphic designer

Louise Fili is an American graphic designer recognized for use of typography and quality design. Her work often draws inspiration from her love of Italy, Modernism, and European Art Deco styles. Considered a leader in the postmodern return to historical styles in book jacket design, Fili explores historic typography combined with modern colors and compositions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Tscherny</span> Graphic designer

George Tscherny is a Hungarian-born American graphic designer and educator. Tscherny has received the highest honors among graphic designers. He was awarded the AIGA Medal in 1988, celebrated in the annual Masters Series in 1992 at the School of Visual Arts, and inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1997. He has worked in a number of areas ranging from U.S. postage to identity programs for large corporations and institutions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Inge Druckrey</span>

Inge Druckrey is a designer and educator, who brought the Swiss school of design to the United States. She taught at Yale University, Rhode Island School of Design, University of Hartford, Philadelphia College of Art, Kunstgewerbeschule in Krefeld, The University of the Arts, Kansas City Art Institute. She is Professor Emerita of Graphic Design, University of the Arts.

Elaine Lustig Cohen was an American graphic designer, artist and archivist. She is best known for her work as a graphic designer during the 1950s and 60s, having created over 150 designs for book covers and museum catalogs. Her work has played a significant role in the evolution of American modernist graphic design, integrating European avant-garde with experimentation to create a distinct visual vocabulary. Cohen later continued her career as a fine artist working in a variety of media. In 2011, she was named an AIGA Medalist for her achievements in graphic design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Casey</span> American graphic designer (1927-1992)

Jacqueline S. Casey was a graphic designer best known for the posters she created for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). While practicing a functional Modernism, Jacqueline S. Casey was a graphic designer in the Office of Publications from 1955 to 1989 and assigned the position as director in 1972. In discussing her design, Casey stated, "My work combines two cultures: The American interest in visual metaphor on the one hand, and the Swiss fascination with planning, fastidiousness, and control over technical execution on the other."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gail Anderson (graphic designer)</span> American graphic designer

Gail Anderson is an American graphic designer, writer, and educator- known for her typographic skill, hand-lettering and poster design.

Michael J. Walsh is an American designer and creative director who has worked or consulted at the School of Visual Arts, Harry N. Abrams, the Walt Disney Company, Time Inc, Turner Broadcasting, Time Warner and The Washington Post Magazine, among others. He has won over 300 awards for design and art direction in American and international awards competitions for digital, video, exhibition design, multimedia projects and print projects.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carin Goldberg</span> American graphic designer (1953–2023)

Carin Goldberg was an American graphic designer, publication designer and brand consultant. She was known for her cover designs for record albums and books, with her work appearing in and on the covers of the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, New York Magazine, The Atlantic Monthly, and Wired. Her use of visual historical references generated controversy within the graphic design community.

References

  1. Who's Who in America - 1997 (51st ed.). 1996.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 "2014 AIGA Medalist: Alexander Isley". AIGA | the professional association for design. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  3. Budrick, Callie (2018-04-18). "Meet the RDA Judges: An Interview with Alexander Isley — PRINT". Print Magazine. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  4. "Weddings". The New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2013.
  5. "Alexander Isley". Who We Are. Alexander Isley, Inc. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  6. "Alexander Isley". Alexander Isley, Inc. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  7. "MAKE, BELIEVE: The Work of Alexander Isley". NC State College of Design. 2015-01-18. Retrieved 2019-06-10.
  8. "Past Boards". AIGA. Retrieved October 8, 2012.
  9. 1 2 "AIGA Fellow Award". AIGA Connecticut. Retrieved April 3, 2013.
  10. "Alex Isley". Yale School of Art. Retrieved May 3, 2011.
  11. Alexander Isley Interview. UNC School of the Arts. OCLC   17914572 . Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  12. "College of Design Distinguished Alumni". Archived from the original on February 23, 2014. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  13. "MoMA the Collection". Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved February 3, 2014.
  14. "The Collection". CooperHewitt.org. Retrieved December 22, 2013.
  15. "Alexander Isley". AIGA. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  16. "Alexander Isley Papers".