Born on August 18, 1931, Seymour Chwast spent his childhood in the Bronx. His mother was a homemaker and his father worked as a Veterans Administration file clerk and a waiter. When Chwast was six, he began drawing cartoons featuring his made up characters Lucky Day and Jim Lightning. He was inspired by Disney films, movies, and newspaper comics from the time. At the age of seven, he began to take art classes that were sponsored by the WPA. It was at this point that he began to become aware of the difference between art that belonged in a museum and that of the street. He preferred that of the street.
At the age of ten, Chwast moved with his parents to Saratoga Springs in upstate New York. They stayed for two years before returning to Coney Island. It was then that he enrolled at Abraham Lincoln High School where he began to get an education in graphic design. His teacher, Leon Friend, instilled in him “an appreciation of typography and graphic design and equated success in these areas with achieving nirvana” (Heller). It was because of Friend that Chwast was pushed to enter competitions and at sixteen Chwast had his first published illustration in Seventeen magazine. During his time in high school, Chwast was also a part of the elite “Art Squad,” a group comprised of the school’s best art students that made posters for school events.
Chwast enrolled in the School of Art and Architecture at Cooper Union following high school. This New York institution gives free tuition to students that perform well enough on a qualifying examination and allowed Chwast to get an amazing education that propelled him into a fantastic career. He was able to learn a great deal from his fellow students and professors. His drawing teacher, Sidney Delevante, was especially influential to him. Chwast told his friend Steven Heller during an interview that “Delevante…revolutionized my way of thinking by making me start everything from zero with nothing preconceived. I also learned from him that, while my work had a point of view, there were infinite ways of expressing it” (Heller). It was during his college years that Chwast realized he had no interest in going into fine arts, but rather that design was his focus. Although he did draw and loved to illustrate, it was more about how the type looked and the layout of the piece that inspired Chwast.
For the first three years following graduation, Chwast held a number of different jobs including a junior designer at the New York Times where he learned a great deal about typography. While being employed by various firms, Chwast began to work with friends Edward Sorel and Reynold Ruffins in soliciting freelance work. To promote themselves, the trio produced the Push Pin Almanack. Chwast said, “While it had its own conventions, we were able to apply our own typographic ideas and do quaint drawings, consistent not only with almanacs but with the style of the times.” (“Chwast, Seymour”) Because it was not a commissioned piece from another party, the group was able to take their own ideas and create innovative results.
Chwast and Sorel, along with Milton Glaser, partnered in 1954 to create Push Pin Studios. They created a new promotional piece, called the Push Pin Graphic. Like the Almanack, each issue featured original text and graphics based around a theme. Their innovations, such as enclosing graphics with rounded corners and using broken lines in drawings, were very influential to the field of graphic design. In 1986 the company became known as Pushpin Group.
In 1983, Chwast partnered with Steven Heller to create Pushpin Editions. Together they have published a wide range of books on graphic design and the arts. Some of the books they have produced are The Push Pin Graphic: A Quarter Century of Innovative Design and Illustration, Happy Birthday, Bach and The Art of New York and Graphic Style, from Victorian to Post-Modern. This last title has become a valuable reference for graphic designers today.
In the late 1960s, Chwast began to work with various publishing houses in illustrating and designing books. His first book was Connoisseur Book of the Cigar in 1967. Following its publication, he worked on a dozen children’s books. Chwast’s preference of bright acrylic colors were a good match for the children’s works he created.
Chwast’s 1985 publication of Happy Birthday, Bach “contains three hundred images of Bach in guises ranging from court jester to civil rights marcher” (“Chwast, Seymour”). It is a true representation of the style and variations and range of Chwast’s abilities as an artist. He is also well known for his representations of Richard Nixon, anti-war posters, advertisements for Forbes magazine, package design for Erlanger beer, and package design for a McDonald’s Happy Meal box. They style of his work is apparent in each design he has created.
Seymour Chwast has been given many design awards, including the St. Gaudens Medal from Cooper Union in 1972. In 1984 Chwast was inducted into the American Institute of Graphic Arts and in 1992 received an honorary doctorate from Parsons School of Design. His work has been featured in museums all over the world. Most notably, the Push Pin retrospective was held in the Louvre’s Musee des Arts Decratifs for two months in 1970. This spawned a whole series of museums that featured his work.
Although Chwast has been considered to be shy, unassuming, and soft-spoken, it is obvious that he has made his mark on the design world. Through his work and ingenuity, he has sparked innovation in the world of design that has enabled new and creative thought. His multi-faceted expertise as a children’s author, illustrator, and graphic designer, has led him to be seen as a leader in the world of art.
Works Cited
"Chwast, Seymour." Current Biography. 1995. Biography Reference Bank. Web. 19 Nov. 2009.
Chwast, Seymour and Steven Heller. The Left-Handed Designer. New York: Henry N Abrams,1985.
Heller, Steven. “Seymour Chwast.” American Institute of Graphic Arts, 1986. Web. 19 November 2009.http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/medalist-seymourchwast
