Michael Mabry (born 1955) is an American graphic designer, illustrator, and educator, he is the Principal at Michael Mabry Design. He was one of the founders of the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, commonly known as the Bay Area, is a List of regions of California, region of California surrounding and including San Francisco Bay, and anchored by the cities of Oakland, San Francisco, and San Jose, California, S ...

postmodern Postmodernism encompasses a variety of artistic, cultural, and philosophical movements that claim to mark a break from modernism. They have in common the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of depicting the wo ...

movement in

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 ...

, that later became known as the "Pacific Wave".

Biography

Michael Mabry was born in 1955 in Niles,

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and raised in Park Forest,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...

. Mabry attended

Iowa State University Iowa State University of Science and Technology (Iowa State University, Iowa State, or ISU) is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Ames, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1858 as the Iowa Agricult ...

for a year. He then moved in 1974 to the

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

to study architecture, but changed focus and instead graduated in 1978 with a BA degree in Graphic Design. In 1979, he was invited to join Nicolas Sidjakov and Jerry Berman at the design firm of Sidjakov & Berman Associates in San Francisco. In the early 1980s a few San Francisco–based designers were nicknamed “The Michaels” because they all had the same name (Mabry, alongside Cronan, Manwaring, Vanderbyl, Schwab), and later they were known as the "Pacific Wave" according to historian Steven Heller. In 1981, he opened his own design firm, Michael Mabry Design. Mabry is married to Sarah Mercer Keith, and she is a partner in his design firm. Clients have included The Land of Nod, NetJets Europe, the

Andrew Mellon Foundation The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, commonly known as the Mellon Foundation, is a New York City-based private foundation with wealth accumulated by Andrew Mellon of the Mellon family of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is the product of the 1969 merger o ...

Chronicle Books Chronicle Books is a San Francisco–based American publishing company that publishes books for both adults and children. History The company was established in 1967 by Phelps Dewey, an executive with Chronicle Publishing Company, then-publish ...

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, and

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. The design for the packaging of Mottura shower curtain rings won awards and was included in

I.D. magazine ''I.D.'' (''The International Design Magazine'') was a magazine covering the art, business, and culture of design. It was published eight times a year by F+W Media. History ''I.D.'' was founded in 1954 as ''Industrial Design''. The name was la ...

's annual design review in 1994. Mabry was a founding member of the American Institute of Graphic Art (AIGA) chapter in San Francisco, and served as the first Treasurer and second President. He was awarded the 2014 AIGA Medal. He has taught at

California College of the Arts The California College of the Arts (CCA) is a private art school in San Francisco, California. It was founded in Berkeley, California in 1907 and moved to a historic estate in Oakland, California in 1922. In 1996, it opened a second campus in ...

(CCA) in the graphic design department. Mabry's work is in various public museum collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA). 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 510 members from 46 countries. Its members have been collectively responsible for the identity design of most of the world's top cor ...

(AGI) since 2000.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mabry, Michael 1955 births American graphic designers AIGA medalists Iowa State University alumni University of Utah alumni People from San Francisco California College of the Arts faculty Living people