Charles Spencer Anderson

Bio:

Charles S. Anderson is a design entrepreneur and creative director who, over the past 35 years, has successfully combined the sometimes opposing elements of art... and commerce. Early in his career, Anderson was an influential designer in the postmodern movement, and rejected slick corporate design in favor of a more human, personal aesthetic that utilized vernacular images and uncoated paper. Many of the printed artifacts designed by CSA from that period were produced for the French Paper Company. CSA Design helped create a new design approach by merging elements of the past and present, resulting in a modern design aesthetic that continues to this day. Throughout his career, Anderson has championed the idea of design as a product rather than just a service to corporations, and in doing so has helped change the profession by inspiring a generation of designers to produce their own products. Anderson was influenced by his early exposure to pop culture comic illustrations, contrasted by his years at The Minneapolis College of Art and Design studying under his mentor and first employer, Peter Seitz, who was educated at the New Bauhaus under Otl Aicher and at Yale under Paul Rand. Anderson was the first designer recruited to join the Duffy Design Group, where he later became a partner. In 1989 Anderson formed Charles S. Anderson Design Company. Anderson believes that great design is about making something that adds richness to people's lives; something inspiring, memorable, funny, abrasive, ironic, elegant, ugly, human-anything but uninteresting. He sees design evolving into an art form, rich in cultural vocabulary and personal expression, an approach based on a design philosophy, that first acknowledges where we come from, and uses that understanding to create a new path to the future. Anderson views graphic design as a product, rather than just a service, and also as a viable art form in it's own right that has moved beyond it’s origins as solely a vehicle for corporate communication.Read More

Category:

Design

Company:

Charles S. Anderson Design Company

Contact:

Awards:

CSA Design has received honors and awards, including The American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal, the highest honor for exceptional achievement in the field of... design; The Society of Typographic Arts Honorary Lifetime Membership Award; The Minneapolis College of Art and Design Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award; The University College Designers Association Honorary Lifetime Membership; and membership in Alliance Graphique International (past member). CSA Design has also been awarded top honors in nearly every major design competition, including multiple gold pencils from The One Show, multiple gold and silver awards from the New York Art Directors Club, and multiple awards from the Communication Arts Design Annual, Graphis, Print, and others.Read More