Design: Nouvelle Cuisine For the Eyes

Two young masters lead a splurge of Bay Area graphics

Not long ago, important American graphic design was thought to occur exclusively in New York City. But San Francisco, for one, has been changing that. Starting about 20 years ago, a new generation of designers came of age in the Bay Area, formally trained but unconventional by temperament. At the same time, decoration became fashionable again, modernist doctrine loosened, and a sort of regional self-infatuation overtook the arts. Baby-boomer entrepreneurs, with their hip clothing companies, upscale shops and software firms, became prime graphic-design clients. By the early 1980s the most talented of the San Francisco designers were creating the visual equivalent...

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