UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Gail Anderson, chair of the bachelor of fine arts design and advertising programs at the School of Visual Arts in New York, director at Visual Arts Press, and former senior art director at Rolling Stone magazine, will have a public conversation with B. Stephen Carpenter II, Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Dean in Penn State's College of Arts and Architecture, at 10 a.m. on Friday, May 3, in the Stuckeman Jury Space, Stuckeman Family Building, prior to serving as the college’s commencement speaker on May 4.

The conversation is part of a College of Arts and Architecture series, “Onward and Upward: Conversations with Commencement Speakers,” launched in 2022. This year’s event is co-sponsored by the College of the Liberal Arts and will be viewable via Zoom webinar.

Anderson's career as a professional designer began with a brief stint designing covers for Vintage Books. She moved into magazine publishing and spent more than 14 years at Rolling Stone, where she became senior art director. Before starting her own small design firm, Anderson Newton Design, she created poster art for Broadway and off-Broadway productions at SpotCo, one of only two advertising agencies that focused on Broadway theater. A graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan with a bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) in media arts, Anderson was named chair of the school’s B.F.A. Design and B.F.A. Advertising departments in 2019. She has co-authored numerous books on typography and design, including “New Vintage Type” and “Type Speaks.”

Recognition for her outstanding design work includes the American Institute of Graphic Arts Medal for Lifetime Achievement (2008) and the Richard Gangel Art Director Award from the Society of Illustrators (2009). In 2018, the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum honored Anderson with its National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement. She is the first African American, and only the third woman, to be selected. Anderson is the recipient of the Manship Medallion from the Art Directors Club, and her work is represented in the Library of Congress's permanent collection, the Milton Glaser Design Archives at the School of Visual Arts, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Before joining the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee in 2013, Anderson designed the Emancipation Proclamation stamp (issued in 2013) for the U.S. Postal Service.