The best way to learn art or design skills is through experience. Sometimes, you learn through your own experience at art school, internships or those demanding projects in design school. At other times, it is wise to observe the work of other designers. See their projects for big clients, understand their design thinking and learn from their experiences. In this list of famous designers, we’ve put together a bunch of designers who have proven their design skills through an extensive range of design clients, comprehensive projects, art exhibitions and even passion projects. Explore part 1 of this list of famous designers.
Akiko Stehrenberger
- Design Sector – Film and advertisement poster designer, art director and graphic designer
- Notable Works – Film poster for Dune, Joker Folie à Deux, Oppenheimer, Paris 2024 Olympics
- Books Authored – Akikomatic: The Work of Akiko Stehrenberger
- Style – Akiko Stehrenberger’s work clearly shows that she loves making the best out of textures and effects. Whether it is an impasto effect in the Dune poster to depict undulated sand or the sinewy effect in the Last of Us poster. Akiko’s work as a result looks tactile and engaging.
Alana Louise
- Design Sector – Package design, jumbotron animation, merchandise artwork, logo and branding design
- Notable Works – Google, Taproot soda, Austin beer works, National Parks Foundation (America), Patagonia, Amazon, Adobe
- Style – Alana Louise manages multiple design sectors with ease. Her design style resembles the classic illustrations on raglan sleeve t-shirts with the monogram of a typical American camp. The embellishments in most of her illustrations look like linocut lines. Needless to say, her artworks come with a nostalgia factor and are full of fun and colour.
Alexander Isley
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, visual arts, art director, environmental designer, design educator and president of the AIGA New York
- Notable Works – Armani, MAD magazine, Goodwill Industries, Home Depot, American Museum of the Moving Image, New York Academy of Art
- Books Authored – Typography 24 – The Annual of the Type Directors Club · Volume 24
- Style – The work of Alexander Isley never fails to show experienced design thinking. Examples of his work across a plethora of companies and design sectors can fill design case study books for anyone who wishes to inculcate the knack of using the right design elements in the right places for the right reasons.
Annie Atkins
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, film prop designer and production designer
- Notable Works – Wes Anderson films like The Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch and Isle of Dogs
- Books Authored – Fake Love Letters, Forged Telegrams, and Prison Escape Maps: Designing Graphic Props for Filmmaking
- Style – Annie Atkins is one of those designers who can completely change her style depending on the requirements of the project. The Grand Budapest Hotel, for instance, was a film that required train tickets, sign boards, cake boxes and maps to look like they were made in the 1940s or so. Her prop work successfully managed to capture the charm of that decade and add to the charm of the film.
April Greiman
- Design Sector – Transmedia artist, art director, graphic designer, photographer etc.
- Notable Works – Gallery exhibitions at museums like MoMA, Installation displays around California
- Books Authored – Inspiration and Process in Design | Hybrid Imagery: The Fusion of Technology and Graphic Design, among other titles.
- Style – Imagine if a contemporary artist decided to use photography and modern computer tools instead of a canvas, oil paint or sculpting material for their work. April Greiman’s art is what you would get. Greiman was one of those designers who pioneered the use of digital tools to make designs when “tears,” cutting blades, letterpress and scans were still the popular methods of making design work.
Aries Moross
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, illustrator, art director
- Notable Works – Spicegirls tour – Spiceworld, Adobe, Mickey Mouse x Uniqlo
- Books Authored – Guest author for The Art of British Rock | Graphic 10 and others.
- Style – If punk and pop came together to make a style, it would embody the work of Aries Moross. Her use of bold textures, vivid elements and neon colours work quite well for the branding of music bands and Y2K branding projects.
Barbara Kruger
- Design Sector – Concept artist, graphic designer, collage and visual artist
- Notable Works – Condé Nast Magazine, Museum of Contemporary Arts LA, PBS network
- Books Authored – Remote Control: Power, Cultures, and the World of Appearances, Remaking History (Discussions in Contemporary Culture), among others.
- Style – Barbra uses some of the simplest fonts like Helvetica or Futura to create these bold typography posters with white font on red backgrounds with a surrealist, stand-out image. This is her signature style where the concept usually follows the narrative of the message she intends to convey.
Bethany Heck
- Design Sector – Type art, product design, design director
- Notable Works – IBM, Microsoft Power BI, VOX media
- Books Authored – The Font Review Journal, among others.
- Style – Quite a master in typography and product design, Bethany Heck is the designer you might hire if you want your work to have a mix of corporate professionalism, fun and innovation. A difficult mixture to master, but Bethany Heck pulls off her design style and visual language with ease. Her commentary on typography and her understanding of fonts is truly a masterclass.
Bruno Munari
- Design Sector – Graphic design, collage art, children’s book illustrations, visual artist
- Notable Works – Project for Negativo Positivo, Olivetti, The Elephant’s Wish
- Books Authored – Designs as Art | Artists e designer, among others
- Style – Bruno Muntari made an impact in the Italian Futurist art movement. He was also one of the founders of the concrete art movement or the Movimento Arte Concreta.
Charlotte Allen
- Design Sector – Data designer, poster artworks, publication art, commercial art
- Notable Works – UN, WHO, Google X Creative Mentor Network
- Style – Conscious art and design work that uses minimal elements to make a strong impact. Charlotte Allen’s portfolio is full of work with heavy messaging on topics like environmental causes, women’s health and even charming art installations.
Chip Kidd
- Design Sector – Book cover artist and designer, comic artworks.
- Notable Works – The Batman Manga, The Cheese Monkeys, Jurassic Park
- Books Authored – A Kidd’s Guide to Graphic Design, among others.
- Style – The perfect artist and designer to illustrate and design cover art for your adult and fiction. Possibly a nerd himself, Chip Kidd makes the kind of cover art that a sci-fi nerd with good taste in design might want to put up on the walls of their room.
Chloe Lancaster
- Design Sector – Artworks for music events, graphic designer and poster art.
- Notable Works – Mirrors Festival, Steamin’, Cultivate Festival
- Style – If electronic, punk, Y2K and Vapourwave all collaborated to create an immersive Millennium 2000 style, it would resemble Chloe Lancaster’s work. Lancaster makes perfect designs for punk rock concerts and merchandise for Gen Z.
David Carson
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, design director
- Notable Works – Armani, Audi, Bose, Helvetica film, Yale University
- Books Authored – The End of Print: The Grafik Design of David Carson (co-authored)
- Style – If grunge, oddly enough, had a cleaner, more playful look, then David Carson’s visual language is what you would get. Certainly, a unique style that works great on statement pieces.
Giorgia Lupi
- Design Sector – Data visualisation, information designer, mapping and infographic designer
- Notable Works – Partner at Pentagram, New York Times, Mindworks
- Books Authored – Dear Data | Visualising the Data City | Observe, Collect, Draw!
- Style – Georgia Lupi is ace at presenting cluttered and complicated data in easy to understand visual maps and graphs. If a company needs an experienced designer to map out important data, Georgia Lupi probably gets the call.
Hannah Pahl
- Design Sector – Poster designer, merchandise artwork
- Notable Works – That Nashville Feeling
- Style – Hannah Pahl designs these old-school artworks and monograms that go well on t-shirts, caps, mugs and jumpers. Reminiscent of a 70’s style with playful fonts, fun colours and quirky mascots, Hannah’s wearables sure are cool and stylish.
Herb Lubalin
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, typographer, monogram and logo designs, art direction, layout and publication design.
- Notable Works – Saturday Evening Post, Eros Magazine
- Biographies – Herb Lubalin: Typographer by Adrian Shaughnessy | Herb Lubalin: American Graphic Designer by Adrian Shaughnessy
- Style – A name from the Graphic Design Hall of Fame, Herb Lubalin, was a graphic designer at the time when designers were transitioning from paper, cutters and glue on a measuring board to Adobe’s new computer programs. Lubalin’s exemplary designs are still used as case studies in art schools.
Irma Boom
- Design Sector – Bookmaker, photographer, visual artist.
- Notable Works – MoMA, University of Amsterdam
- Books Authored – Boom | Irma Boom: Biography in Books, among others
- Style – Irma Boom is the “Queen of Books” after having crafted so many of them with expert visual language. With a plethora of books under her name, Boom’s work is worth exploring if you like an abstract style in visual design.
Jenni Helin
- Design Sector – Set design, prop design, interior design, food photography
- Notable Works – Saatchi, Waitrose, P&O Cruises
- Books Authored – Artificial Lighting Ebook
- Style – Jenni Helin has mastered light and colour to an extent, where she can make your table setting look like a Tuscan summer, a Victorian English dream, a spring full of pop or a demure date night. What’s more, is that the prop work and layout offer viewers an alluring viewing experience.
Jessica Hische
- Design Sector – Illustrator, Type designer, lettering artist, packaging, posters and book cover artworks.
- Notable Works – Neiman Marcus Christmas packaging, Are You There God It’s Me, Margaret film poster, Dolly Parton Songteller cover, The Art of Harry Potter book cover lettering.
- Books Authored – Tomorrow, I’ll be Brave | Tomorrow, I’ll be Kind, among others
- Style – Jessica Hische has a lettering style that is fun and playful and perfect for books designed for children and young adults. Her work shows a layout style, fonts and palettes that capture the imaginations of a young audience.
Jessica Walsh
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, illustrator, art director and design educator
- Notable Works – Google I/O 2022, Plenty Organic food, Bombay 99 tonic water
- Books Authored – Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty by Stefan Sagmeister and Jessica Walsh, among others
- Style – Full of colour, clean lines, colour blocking, cohesive layouts and elements that attract the eye; these are the qualities that best describe the visual style of Walsh.
Josef Müller Brockmann
- Design Sector – Graphic designer
- Notable Works – IBM, Muller-Brockmann & Co.
- Books Authored – Grid Systems in Graphic Design A Visual Communication Manual for Graphic Designers, Typographers and Three Dimensional Designers | Josef Müller Brockmann: Pioneer of Swiss Graphic Design | Josef Müller Brockmann: Posters, 1948-1981 | Grid Systems in Graphic Design, among others
- Style – A master of Swiss design and the International Typographic Style, it is likely that some of the design rules we follow today in publication design were first set by him. Josef Müller Brockmann was a true design genius and a master of cohesive publication layout.
Kel Lauren
- Design Sector – Merchandise artworks
- Notable Works – Merchandise for Elton John, Greenday, Rolling Stones etc.
- Style – Detailed illustrations with a mixture of collage work and funky lettering, depending on the singer or music album in question. Kel Lauren can adapt her style with ease to whatever the style of the band is.
Kristle Marshall
- Design Sector – Illustrator, lettering artist and graphic designer
- Notable Works – Audible, Sephora, Harper Collins Publication, Coach
- Style – Kristle Marshall has lent her artistic talents to book covers, branding artwork, posters, packaging and more. Her style is full of colours, her lettering is punchy and attractive and her character artworks are charming. Just what brands need when they aim to grab the attention of the audience.
Lauren Dickens
- Design Sector – Graphic design, typography and branding
- Notable Works – Bauhaus Brew Labs, Rattle Creek, Everybody Wants Some Beer
- Style – Think “cabin in the woods” and voilà, you’ve got a pretty good idea of Lauren Dickens’ design style. Clever use of colours, neat use of lettering and an overall creative flare are visible in all of her designs.
Louise Fili
- Design Sector – Graphic design and typography for book cover art, packaging artworks etc.
- Notable Works – Il Conte pinot grigio, Sarabeth’s marmelade, Rubirosa olive oil
- Books Authored – Louise Fili: A Designer’s Process
- Style – A very grand design style that is reminiscent of the Art Deco movement. Gold spot UV details and 1920s fonts on rich maroons and sapphire blues. If you are a company that sells luxurious products, Louise Fili designs on your packaging are probably what you are looking for.
Lucille Tenazas
- Design Sector – Graphic design, typography, communication design, art educator
- Notable Works – AIGA, Rizzoli International, San Francisco International Airport
- Books Authored – Vital Curriculum: Rendering the Personal in Graphic Design
- Style – Lucille Tenazas’s work resembles collage art but with a lettering flair. A good way to describe her work would be to call it “organised chaos” with a slightly brutalist hint.
Lynne Yun
- Design Sector – Type designer, art educator, graphic designer
- Notable Works – Schick Art Gallery, Panasonic, World Trade Centre, Broadway
- Style – Lynn Yun’s lettering art takes vintage fonts that look like letterpress characters but with a modern twist. The flourishes, contortions, embellishments and colours give her classic type art a contemporary feel.
Manita Songserm
- Design Sector – Graphic designer and artist
- Notable Works – Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, Thai Art Collector Association
- Style – If brutalism decided to take on a glitchy aesthetic, then you would probably get Manita Songserm’s artwork. She packs information in the most unconventional ways in her posters and cover art.
Margo Chase
- Design Sector – Graphic designer
- Notable Works – Mattel, Procter and Gamble, Nestle, Prince
- Books Authored – Creative Inspirations: Margo Chase, Graphic Designer
- Style – Margo Chase is a design chameleon who is capable of completely changing her style depending on the project. From colour blocking for Nesquick to Y2K for Cher, Margo Chase can create immersive aesthetics for almost any style.
Marian Bantjes
- Design Sector – Graphic artist, type artist and illustrator
- Notable Works – Dylan Thomas, Walrus Magazine
- Books Authored – Marian Bantjes: Pretty Pictures
- Style – Marian Bantjes patterns designs look like maximalist, magic eye posters from the 1980s. She can give her designs character and mood. Such an ability is rare even amongst some professional designers.
Marta Cerdà
- Design Sector – Graphic designer and typographer
- Notable Works – Vogue, Nike, Type Director’s Club, Spotify
- Books Authored – Marta Cerdà Alimbau: Type to Image
- Style – Marta Cerdà’s visual language is probably like what Andy Warhol’s work would have looked like in this modern, digital age. Every advertisement and poster made by her simply goes, POP!
Mary Corita Kent
- Design Sector – Pop artist, collage art, art educator
- Notable Works – Immaculate Heart College
- Books Authored – Sister Mary Corita, I.H.M.
- Style – The only Catholic nun graphic designer in this list is known for making some very cool collage artwork. Sister Mary Corita Kent’s work beautifully balances striking neon colours with soothing neutrals. Balanced colour palettes with chaotic elements are what you will find in most of Sister Mary’s designs.
Meg Lewis
- Design Sector – Artist, illustrator, graphic designer
- Notable Works – Slack, Pinterest, Microsoft, Meta
- Books Authored – Full Time You Self-Discovery Workbook (activity book)
- Style – Preppy, commercial lettering and design posters that are perfect for medium to large businesses to advertise their back-to-school collections. Meg Lewis shows that she has a good understanding of applying the company’s branding design principles in the promotional work she makes.
Michael Bierut
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, art critic, design director
- Notable Works – AIGA, Hillary Clinton’s Presidential Campaign
- Books Authored – How to | Now You See It and Other Essays on Design
- Style – Swiss design gone wild! This is an apt characterisation for the visual language of Michael Bierut. His work shows a good understanding of presenting focused copy by honouring most of Gestalt’s principles of design with a rule broken on some rare occasions.
Milton Glaser
- Design Sector – Graphic designer
- Notable Works – I Love New York logo, Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, DC Comics
- Books Authored – Milton Glaser: Graphic Design | Art is Work: Graphic Design, Interiors, Objects and Illustrations | Milton Glaser Posters: 427 Examples from 1965 to 2017 | Milton Glaser: Inspiration and Process in Design
- Style – If your art school has a class on design works that have been strokes of genius then it is very likely that Milton Glaser’s work may come up. He is the creator of the “I Heart NY” logo. Need we say more?
Nicole Morrison
- Design Sector – Set designer, photographer, prop layout
- Notable Works – Brita, McDonald’s
- Style – Nicole Morrison brings the Avant Basic style, quite successfully to prop design and photo advertisements. She holds a good understanding of light, shadows and colour which shows in her fresh posters that are quite like eye-candy.
Nubikini
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, colour specialist, photographer, lettering artist
- Notable Works – Resolve Media, Air BnB Pride, Infruit drink
- Style – Colour blocking, lettering and a knack for abstract design elements make Nubikini’s design work attractive for commercial designs. Her work is sure to make a viewer stop scrolling and stare at the design for a while. This is a good litmus test for successful designs.
Paul Rand
- Design Sector – Art direction and graphic design
- Notable Works – IBM, UPS, Enron, ABC etc.
- Books Authored – Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art
- Style – Paul Rand is the OG graphic designer, the GOAT of logo designs and among the top 10 portrait photos in the Design Hall of Fame, right at the entrance.
Paula Scher
- Design Sector – Graphic designer, art educator
- Notable Works – Pentagram, Citi Bank, Tiffany and Co., Microsoft, Victoria and Albert Museum
- Books Authored – Paula Scher: Works
- Style – Swiss design, brutalism and Suprematism walk into a bar. They decide to blend into a single style and become the work of Paula Scher.
Saul Bass
- Design Sector – Print production, layout design, graphic design
- Notable Works – Anatomy of a Murder, Hitchcock’s Vertigo
- Biographies – Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design by Jennifer Bass, Pat Kirkham | Saul Bass: Anatomy of Film Design by Jan-Christopher Horak
- Style – An ace at analogue printmaking using methods like Silkscreen printing, lino-cut, lithography and letterpress. His work is immediately recognisable and has been fondly remembered for decades. What more can a designer ask for?
Sheila de Bretteville
- Design Sector – Graphic design, public art and art educator
- Notable Works – Hillhouse H.S. Academic, Women in Design, Aspen Times
- Style – Her modern installation artworks are able to beautifully blend into the environment they are placed. Sheila de Bretteville work is deliberate and yet subtle, perfect for installation and interactive art that wishes to make a clever statement.
Stefan Sagmeister
- Design Sector – Graphic designer and typographer
- Notable Works – Galerie Maximilian Hutz, Weston Family Foundation – Tunnels for Toronto
- Books Authored – Sagmeister & Walsh: Beauty | Things I have learned in my life so far (and other books)
- Style – Stefan Sagmeister’s artwork looks quirky at first sight. However, upon taking a closer look, more often than not, his works are imbued with meaning and implications. Almost like an artist and designer becoming one entity.
Stephanie Bohn
- Design Sector – Set design, prop design, interior design, food styling, visual storytelling
- Notable Works – Food and Wine magazine, Texas Monthly, Hidden Oaks – Ashby Collective
- Style – Stephanie Bohn set designs and prop designs immerse the viewer into whatever fantasy world she tries to create. It is very likely, that we are yet to see more great work from a designer of such calibre.
Steve Edge
- Design Sector – Creative director, retail design, set design, mixed-media, branding design
- Notable Works – Austin Reed, Hamley’s, Cartier, Fortnum and Mason, Christian Dior, L’Atelier Five
- Style – Luxurious packaging art and retail design that makes you want to stop walking and press your nose to the shop’s window display to get a better look at the novelty. Steve Edge’s work almost, never fails to get the viewer’s admiration.
Susan Kare
- Design Sector – Iconographer, UI design, Graphic design
- Notable Works – Apple Macintosh
- Books Authored – Susan Kare Icons: Selected Work from 1983 – 2011
- Style – Pixel artwork, retro designs and a playful design language is something that Susan Kare successfully delivers. Her work shines on brands and products that cater to a young adult demographic.
Tomoko Miho
- Design Sector – Graphic designer
- Notable Works – MoMA, Library of Congress
- Books Authored – Hall of Femmes: Tomoko Miho
- Style – Quintessential art exhibition work from the 1980s that teaches young designers so much about composition, themes and embedding messaging in design effectively.
Wim Crouwel
- Design Sector – Type designer, typographer, graphic designer
- Notable Works – Stedelijk Museum, Dutch Postal Telegraph and Telephone Services
- Books Authored – Wim Crouwel in His Own Words
- Style – A modern art visual language with a hint of Bauhaus is the defining aspect of most of his work. In fact, Wim Crouwel mastered the grid system for type and fonts so well that he came to be known as “the grid.”
Zuzana Licko
- Design Sector – Type designer, visual artist, sculptor, installation art, wall art
- Notable Works – Ruth Bancroft Botanical Garden, Eleanor D. Wilson Museum at Hollins University, Hyatt House Denver Aurora
- Books Authored – Mrs Eaves: a Typeface Designed by Zuzana Licko
- Style – Zuzana Licko’s work looks like what tribal art would look like if it had digitised elements and cleaner lines. Licko’s abstract work could easily be put up in a constructivist museum for people to admire.
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