Michael Manwaring

Michael Manwaring (born March 21, 1942)[1][2] is an American designer and artist, he was the Principal at The Office of Michael Manwaring design firm.[3] He was based in San Francisco for more than 40 years and was one of the founders of the San Francisco Bay Area postmodern movement in graphic design, that later became known as the "Pacific Wave". He is currently located in Portland, Oregon.

Michael Manwaring
Born (1942-03-21) March 21, 1942.
Palo Alto, California, US
EducationSan Francisco Art Institute
MovementPacific Wave design movement
Websitehttps://www.manwaring.com/

Biography

Manwaring was born and grew up in Palo Alto, near Stanford University where his father taught.[4][5] He attended San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) and studied design with Jim Robertson, of the Robertson Montgomery design firm as well as Gordon Ashby, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, and Jack Stauffacher.[5][6][2] He was inspired in his early career by the Swiss designer Josef Muller-Brockmann and his 'Beethoven poster'.[4] While in college he started freelance work for the Surf Theater on Irving Street and 48th Street, designing film posters.[5] While still in school he worked with designer Gordon Ashby, together they worked on the IBM-sponsored Astronomia exhibition (1964) at the Hayden Planetarium in New York.[1][5]

Manwarning designed public signage for a number of cities in the Bay Area during the 1970s though 1990s, often inspired by large scale Supergraphics.[7] In the 1970s, Manwarning designed an iconic public art sign in the Bayview neighborhood that read, "Indian Basin Industrial Park" in helvetica font, each letter was made of concrete.[4] In 1996, he designed alongside historian Nancy Leigh Olmstead the Embarcadero Interpretive Signage, a 2.5 mile long walk along San Francisco's Embarcadero neighborhood with 22 signs sharing historical relevance of a location.[8]

In the 1980s a few San Francisco–based designers were nicknamed “The Michaels” because they all had the same name (Manwaring, alongside Mabry, Cronan, Vanderbyl, Schwab), and later they were known as the "Pacific Wave" according to historian Steven Heller.[9][10][11][12] Manwaring was known to design the environmental design for projects (such as interior design, logos, signage, packaging, and marketing design), not only the graphic design.[12]

In 2006, he moved to Portland, Oregon.[5]

His work is in various public museum collections including San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA),[13] Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA),[14] among others.

Publications
  • Tropp, Barbara (1996). The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes. Bill Chiaravalle (illustrator), Allan Rosenberg (photographer), The Office of Michael Manwaring (designer). William Morrow Cookbooks. ISBN 9780688146115.

References
  1. Carter, Rob (1989). American Typography Today. Van Nostrand Reinhold. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-442-22106-5.
  2. Morgan, Ann Lee; Naylor, Colin (1984). Contemporary Designers. Gale Research Company. p. 338. ISBN 978-0-8103-2036-9. Born in Palo Alto, California, 21 March 1942. Studied under James Robertson, Gordon Ashby, and Barbara and Jack Stauffacher
  3. Kyōkai, Nihon Kurieitāzu (1988). West Meets East. 1. JCA Press. p. 137.
  4. Karlin, Sean (2020-12-17). "Iconic Bayview sign comes down for vital community center: Here's its surprising history". 48 hills. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  5. Meckel, David (2015-12-07). "Fellow Awards 2013 Interview: Michael Manwaring". AIGA San Francisco. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  6. Camuffo, Giorgio (1987). Pacific Wave: California Graphic Design (in Italian). Magnus. ISBN 978-88-7057-070-0.
  7. Communication Arts. 36. Coyne & Blanchard. 1994. p. 107.
  8. "Embarcadero Interpretive Signage and Walkway". San Francisco Art and Architecture. 2000-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  9. "2014 AIGA Medalist: Michael Cronan". American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA). Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  10. Camuffo, Giorgio (1987). Pacific Wave: California Graphic Design. April Greiman, Museo Fortuny. Magnus. ISBN 9788870570700.
  11. Bierut, Michael (2019-03-12). Now You See It and Other Essays on Design. Chronicle Books. p. 184. ISBN 978-1-61689-676-8.
  12. "Michael: They Have Come To Symbolize San Francisco Design". Newspapers.com. The San Francisco Examiner. 26 January 1986. p. 23–27. Retrieved 2021-01-01.
  13. "Manwaring, Michael". SFMOMA. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
  14. Steinberger, Staci (2019-01-09). "Behind the Designs". Unframed LACMA. Retrieved 2020-12-31.

Further reading
  • Igarashi, Takenobu; Vignelli, Massimo; Thornton, Richard S. (1985). Seven Graphic Designers: Michael Manwaring, Woody Pirtle, Takenobu Igarashi, April Greiman, Gerald Reis, Koichi Sato, Michael Vanderbyl. Tokyo, Japan: Mitsumura Printing Company. ISBN 9784766103472.
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