Michael Vanderbyl (born February 9, 1947) is a multidisciplinary designer and design educator based in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

, and the principal of Vanderbyl Design.

Biography

Michael Vanderbyl was born February 9, 1947, in

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

. Vanderbyl received a

Bachelor of Fine Arts A Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) is a standard undergraduate degree for students for pursuing a professional education in the visual, fine or performing arts. It is also called Bachelor of Visual Arts (BVA) in some cases. Background The Bachelor ...

degree in Graphic Design in 1968 from California College of the Arts (CCA). He taught graphic design at CCA for more than 30 years, from 1973 to 2014 and served as the Dean of Design from 1986 to 2002. Vanderbyl was one of the artists in the early 1980s that helped establish the

as a center of the

postmodern movement Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of moderni ...

in graphic design. In the early 1980s a few San Francisco–based designers were nicknamed “The Michaels” because they all had the same name (Vanderbyl alongside, Cronan, Mabry, Manwaring, Schwab), and later they were known as the "Pacific Wave" according to historian Steven Heller. In 1973, he established his own practice, Vanderbyl Design. Over the years his work has expanded from graphic design to designing furniture, products, showrooms and retail spaces. Clients have included Esprit, Baker Furniture, The Walt Disney Company, IBM, AmericaOne, Robert Talbott, Teknion, The Blackstone Group and Luna Textiles. He has designed products for, among others, McGuire Furniture, and HBF. Vanderbyl was awarded the 2000 AIGA Medal by the

American Institute of Graphic Arts The American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) is a professional organization for design. Its members practice all forms of communication design, including graphic design, typography, interaction design, user experience, branding and identity. T ...

(AIGA). He has been a member of the

Alliance Graphique Internationale Alliance Graphique Internationale (AGI) is a club of the world's leading graphic artists and designers. There are 527 members from 43 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top co ...

(AGI) since 1987. He was the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the

International Interior Design Association International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations". International may also refer to: Music Albums * ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011 * ''International'' (New Order album), 2002 * ''International'' (The T ...

(IIDA) in 2006. In 2012, he was inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame.

Biography

See also

References

Further reading