Design Matters from the Archive: Bonnie Siegler

Debbie talks to designer Bonnie Siegler about her career and about the conflict between designers and their clients. “The clients aren’t the problem, the clients aren’t jerks, they’re not assholes, it’s not that they have bad taste, or anything like that. Sometimes they just have no idea how to interact with professional creative people.”

Bonnie was voted one of the 50 most influential designers working today by Graphic Design USA and was a featured designer in the Art Director Club’s Legacy Project. She served as the chairman of the 2013 AIGA national design conference, having previously co-created and chaired AIGA Design for Film and Television conferences in 1999 and 2001. Bonnie also created and produces Command X, a live competition featuring up-and-coming designers, for the last five of AIGA’s national design conferences. She lectures extensively as well, most recently at Adobe Max in Los Angeles. Her studio’s work is in the permanent design archives of AIGA and she has also served on its national board and as treasurer of the New York chapter. Her work has been recognized by the Art Directors Club, Type Directors Club, the Society of Publication Design, the Webby Awards, and the Broadcast Design Association. Bonnie has taught in the graduate programs at Yale University and the School of Visual Arts, has been a visiting artist and guest lecturer at RISD, and and was the 2014 Koopman Distinguished Chair in the Visual Arts at the University of Hartford. Before starting her company in 1993, she worked at MTV Networks and before that, studied graphic design at Carnegie Mellon University.