Hometown hero and Creative Director of the Visual Arts Press Gail Anderson (BFA 1984 Media Arts) is this year’s recipient of the 2018 National Design Awards Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, adding yet another accolade to her celebrated and well-decorated design career. A Bronx native, Anderson and her work have a long history with SVA: She is an alumnus and BFA Design faculty member; often collaborates with SVA colleagues, like Joe Newton with whom she runs Anderson Newton Design studio; and has designed four iterations of SVA’s legendary subway posters (just one example here). She’s held other roles, too, between those, all carried out with her signature thoughtfulness and wit, a keen eye for and deep understanding of typography and design history.

The National Design Awards encompass 11 award categories and celebrate design “as a vital humanistic tool in shaping the world, and seeks to increase national awareness of design”; the Lifetime Achievement Award is given for a body of work from a professional in practice at least 20 years and who has made a profound and long-term contribution to contemporary design. Since her undergraduate days at SVA, Anderson made a name for herself on art direction teams at Rolling Stone, the Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and Vintage Books, and as creative director of design at SpotCo, a New York City advertising agency that creates artwork for Broadway and institutional theater. She is the author of several books and, in her current role, oversees SVA’s in-house design studio and maintains a cohesive visual identity for the College.

“The Lifetime Achievement Award is pretty humbling,” Anderson acknowledges. “I am floored.” She joins Milton Glaser and Ivan Chermayeff as SVA icons to win this award. This year’s award recipients will be honored at a gala dinner and ceremony in October, held in conjunction with the annual National Design Week, Cooper Hewitt’s largest education initiative, which includes a series of free education programs based on the vision and work of the honorees. Below, Anderson opens up about her career, thus far, and the various stops she’s had along the way.

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Cooper Hewitt’s annual awards bestows our creative director with its highest honor.