Philip Baxter Meggs (30 May 1942 – 24 November 2002) was an American

graphic designer A graphic designer is a practitioner who follows the discipline of graphic design, either within companies or organizations or independently. They are professionals in design and visual communication, with their primary focus on transforming ...

, professor, historian and author of books on

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art that involves creating visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdisciplinary branch of ...

. His book ''History of Graphic Design'' is a definitive, standard read for the study of graphic design. He has been called the most important historian of design since

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

(1902-1983). In contrast to Pevsner, he published a history of graphic design that went beyond the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. One of the first educators to create an overview of the history of graphic design that did not depend exclusively on the traditional structure of the history of the art, Meggs believed that graphic design would need to acquire an adequate understanding of the past and its relation with art.

Life and early career

Meggs was born on May 30, 1942, in Newberry, South Carolina, to Wallace Nat Meggs and Elizabeth Pruitt Meggs. He had a twin brother, William Joel Meggs. At 16 years of age he practiced typesetting metal type in the afternoons after school and enjoyed drawing and painting. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 1964 and a

Master of Fine Arts A Master of Fine Arts (MFA or M.F.A.) is a terminal degree in fine arts, including visual arts, creative writing, graphic design, photography, filmmaking, dance, theatre, other performing arts and in some cases, theatre management or arts admi ...

degree in 1971, both from

Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) is a Public university, public research university in Richmond, Virginia, United States. VCU was founded in 1838 as the medical department of Hampden–Sydney College, becoming the Medical College of Virgin ...

(VCU). He also received an honorary doctorate from Massachusetts College of Art. In 1964 he married his college girlfriend, Libby Phillips, an art director and illustrator. They had two children, Andrew and Elizabeth.

Career

Post-college, Meggs worked as a senior designer at

Reynolds Metals Reynolds Group Holdings was a New Zealand–based packaging company with roots in the former Reynolds Metals Company, which was the second-largest aluminum company in the United States, and the third-largest in the world. Reynolds Metals was acqu ...

and then art director at A.H. Robins Pharmaceuticals. In 1968, he began teaching in the Communication Arts and Design Department at

, chairing the department from 1974 to 1987, during which time enrollment doubled and the program rose to national prominence. In the late 1970s, Meggs used a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to travel to other institutions and teach the history of visual communication in an effort to promote the subject. In addition to his teaching at VCU, he served as visiting faculty at

Syracuse University Syracuse University (informally 'Cuse or SU) is a Private university, private research university in Syracuse, New York, United States. It was established in 1870 with roots in the Methodist Episcopal Church but has been nonsectarian since 1920 ...

and the National College of Art and Design,

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. Inspired by a lack of research and instructive materials on design history, theory and creative methods, Meggs started teaching a history of graphic design course in 1974. His efforts to record and understand the history of this profession lead him to publish his first book, ''A History of Graphic Design,'' in 1983. The core subject matter of the book drew on the histories of two intellectual traditions, graphic arts and visual communication. While a professor at VCU he authored more than a dozen books and 150 articles and papers on design and typography, including a section on graphic design in the

Encyclopædia Britannica The is a general knowledge, general-knowledge English-language encyclopaedia. It has been published by Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. since 1768, although the company has changed ownership seven times. The 2010 version of the 15th edition, ...

. Meggs attended many conferences and was said by Steven Heller to have "built a monument to graphic design's legacy." He was inducted into the Art Directors Club Hall of Fame and received its Educator's Award for lifetime achievement and significantly shaping the future of the fields of graphic design education and writing. He died after a long battle with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

on November 24, 2002, at the age of 60 and was buried at Dale Memorial Cemetery in

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

Awards

* 1983 — Association of American Publishers: ''excellence in publishing'' * 1995 — VCU: ''Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service'' * 2004 — AIGA: ''Medalist''

Selected bibliography

*1983 A History of Graphic Design. (1st edition) Van Nostrand Reinhold *1991 A History of Graphic Design. (2nd edition) Van Nostrand Reinhold *1992 Type and Image: The Language of Graphic Design. Van Nostrand Reinhold *1993 Typographic Design: Form and Communication. for Philip B. Meggs and Rob Carter *1998 A History of Graphic Design. (3rd edition) John Wiley & Sons *2005 Meggs' History of Graphic Design. (4th edition) Ed. Wiley. Revised by Alston W. Purvis *2011 Meggs' History of Graphic Design (5th edition) John Wiley & Sons Revised by Alston W. Purvis, *2016 Meggs' History of Graphic Design (6th edition) Revised by Alston W. Purvis,

References

External links

2002 Obituary
in the

Richmond Times-Dispatch The ''Richmond Times-Dispatch'' (''RTD'' or ''TD'' for short) is the primary daily newspaper in Richmond, Virginia, and the primary newspaper of record for the state of Virginia. Circulation The ''Times-Dispatch'' has the second-highest circul ...