new york (bronx) graphic designer, illustrator and type designer, seymour chwast, 84, became a legend in the mid-60s, catapulted by push pin studios a studio he and edward sorel co-founded 10 years earlier. cooper union alums milton glaser and reynold ruffins came on board months later. but it was really chwast and glazer who for 20 years defined the aesthetics (iconic bold signature eye-candy) of book covers, posters and record jackets, most of which seemed to focus on forward and liberal ideals. the studio’s work was most often opinionated, markedly even in the commercial art marketplace.
but let’s talk about seymour and his new book: seymour chwast at war with war, a protest of 5,000 years of war.
there’s a great tradition of design and illustration for political ends. i did my most famous poster during the vietnam war. during the iraq war i felt less inspired but during the vietnam war in the 1960s there were a lot of graphic things going on – music posters promoting punk rock concerts and other anti-war stuff, some anti-drug posters and a lot of other poster activity. people back then had posters hanging up in their rooms but they don’t anymore. that was just a great time for visual material. ~seymour chwast / printed pages 2013.
please, join seymour in his fight against war on kickstarter.
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