Background

Philip Meggs was born on May 30, 1942, in Newberry, South Carolina. He was the son of Wallace Nat Meggs and Elizabeth Pruitt Meggs.

Education

Philip Meggs was a graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he earned a Master of Fine Art in 1971.

Career

Philip Meggs began his career as a graphics designer at Reynolds Metals in 1965, and, from 1966 to 1968, he was an art director for American Home Products Robins Pharmaceuticals (now Wyeth). When he took a position as an instructor at his alma mater, Virginia Commonwealth University, in 1968, Meggs discovered that his students did not understand the history of typography and book design. He, therefore, created a course that covered everything from the invention of the printing press up to the computer age.

Philip Meggs wrote the first book in the United States to cover the full history of the graphic arts, which was called A History of Graphic Design. The research materials and syllabuses he developed became the core of his book, and it has since become required reading in graphics design courses in the United States. Meggs remained at Virginia Commonwealth University for the rest of his career, becoming a professor of communications and arts and design in 1983. He was also dean of the department from 1974 to 1987.

In addition to his influential history, Philip Meggs wrote and edited several other books about printing and graphics design, including cowriting Typographic Design: Form and Communication and coediting Texts on Type: Critical Writings on Typography. He was also a regular contributor to Print magazine. Beginning in 1993, Meggs lent his experience to the United States Postal Service's citizen stamp advisory committee, and his name was in the news for his criticism of the redesign of the United States currency. He believed that the designs were timid and dated.

Achievements

• Philip Meggs was well-known as an educator, writer, and designer. He wrote over a dozen books and 150 articles and papers on design and typography. Besides, Meggs got an award for excellence in publishing from the American Association of Publishers for his book, History of Graphic Design. In 1995 Virginia Commonwealth University awarded Meggs its annual faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research, and Service, and in 2002 was given the Educator Award from the Art Directors Club of New York. The American Institute of Graphic Arts awarded him, AIGA Medal, posthumously in 2004.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Typographic Design

    (New case studies showcase design for Web sites, compact d...)

    1993
  • A History of Graphic Design. Second Edition

    (More than a thousand vivid illustrations chronicle our fa...)

    1991
  • Type and Image

    (In this lively and lavishly illustrated book, the author ...)

    1992
  • Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Fourth Edition

    (The book was published after Philip Meggs's death in 2002.)

    2005
  • Meggs' History of Graphic Design. Fifth Edition

    (The book was published after Philip Meggs's death in 2002.)

    2011
  • A History of Graphic Design 1983
  • A History of Graphic Design. Third Edition 1998

Views

When Philip Meggs joined the faculty of Virginia Commonwealth University in 1968, he found that his layout and typography students lacked a fundamental knowledge of graphic design's past and its relationship to art, architecture, industrial design, and popular culture. He believed that a student's ability to practice graphic design as more than a commercial service or craft would be limited by ignorance of historical context. He eventually developed the first academic curriculum to start with the invention of the printing press and movable type, continue through the modern era and conclude with the influence of the computer.

Quotations: "Of all the things I involve in, I am most proud of my children and my students."

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Paula Scher: ''He was the first person I ever heard talk about design history in a way that seamlessly, warmly and elegantly connected past and present. He made me feel like I was part of a movement of my time, not an irrelevant practitioner grinding out trivial works for yet another bureaucratic corporation.''

Connections

Philip Meggs married Libby Phillips Meggs in 1964. They had two children: Andrew and Elizabeth.

Father:

Wallace Nat Meggs

Mother:

Elizabeth Pruitt Meggs

Wife:

Libby Phillips Meggs

Libby Phillips Meggs is an illustrator and art director.

Son:

Andrew Meggs

Daughter:

Elizabeth Meggs

Brother:

William Joel Meggs

William Joel Meggs is a physician, professor, and chief of the division of toxicology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University.

colleague:

Rob Carter

Rob Carter is an American writer, designer, and educator. He teaches at Virginia Commonwealth University.