Cartoonist's Cartoonists Editorial cartooning Illustration

Let’s Celebrate 90 Years of Seymour Chwast

Skip to comments

D. D. Degg August 18, 2021 1 minute 0 comments

Illustrator, graphic designer, and cartoonist Seymour Chwast was born August 18, 1931.

About Seymour:

He is a founding partner of the celebrated Push Pin Studios, whose revolutionary work altered the course of contemporary graphic communication in the 1960s, and continues to affect the field of design worldwide. In 1985, the studio’s name was changed to The Pushpin Group, of which Chwast is the director.

Developing and refining his innovative approach to design over the course of six decades, Chwast’s clients include the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, and Print, as well as leading corporations, advertising agencies, and publishers both in the United States and abroad. His designs and illustrations have graced posters, packaging, record covers, advertisements, and animated films, as well as corporate and environmental graphics.

            
artwork © Seymour Chwast or respective copyright owners

Earlier this year Stir World engaged Seymour Chwast in a conversation.

From this:

to this:

David Apatoff on how Seymour Chwast “gets it.”

I have said some unkind things on this blog about contemporary illustrators who (in my opinion) don’t draw well …  By contrast, I think Chwast is an example of what illustrators were able to accomplish by ridding themselves of the constraints of the first half of the 20th century.  Chwast understood that if you are going to take liberties, you have to give something in exchange.  Chwast used his liberties to achieve worthwhile results that could not have been achieved within the confines of traditional skills.

On August 16 Stephen Heller spoke at Seymour Chwast’s 90th birthday party.

Seymour is what I call Obstinately Productive.

During the lockdown, he wrote and illustrated four children’s books, published a monograph titled Poster Man featuring his 120 greatest posters, and completed an eclectic guide to Hell (scheduled for release in Fall 2021, lord willing), which includes some of the most heavenly satiric drawings he’s ever done of every netherworld known to humankind.

Seymour Chwast tagged in The Daily Heller.

We join in wishing Seymour a Happy Birthday.