Sheila Levrant de Bretteville, Graphic designer and public artist

Ms. de Bretteville received a B.A. in art history from Barnard College in 1962, an M.F.A. from Yale University in 1964, and honorary degrees from California College of Arts and Crafts and Moore College of Art. She was designated “Design Legend” by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in 2006. Her numerous publications on art and culture include The Photographs of Dorothy Norman and The Motown Album, as well as public art works: Biddy Mason: Time and Place and Omoide no Shotokyo in Los Angeles; Search: Literature in Flushing, New York; At the start…At long last… in New York City’s Inwood “A” train station; Path of Stars in New Haven; and step(pe) in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Ms. de Bretteville worked as designer for Chanticleer Press, Yale University Press, and Olivetti Publicita in Milan before opening the Sheila Studio in 1970. Her work in books, magazines, and newspapers includes the redesign of the Los Angeles Times, special issues of the Aspen Times, Everywoman, American Cinematographer, and Arts in Society. Her posters and fine press editions are in the special collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, and numerous university and public libraries. In 1971, at the California Institute of the Arts, she created the first women’s design program and, in 1973, founded the Woman’s Building and its Women’s Graphic Center in Los Angeles. In 1981 she initiated and chaired the Department of Communication Design at Otis/Parsons. Ms. de Bretteville joined the Yale School of Art faculty in 1990 as its first tenured woman, when she was named professor and director of graduate studies in graphic design.