Thompson, Bradbury

Bradbury Thompson was a graphic designer and art director who had a distinguished career working with a variety of companies and institutions including the Westvaco Corporation, for whom he designed the American Classic Book Series and Westvaco Inspirations for Printers; Mademoiselle Magazine; Art News; and Smithsonian magazine, among others. He designed the limited edition Washburn College Bible, which was published by Oxford University Press in 1979, and designed over 100 United States postage stamps. He was an adjunct professor of graphic design in the Yale School of Art from 1956 to 1995. His autobiography, The Art of Graphic Design, was published by Yale University Press in 1988. He received many awards including the American Institute of Graphic Arts gold medal for lifetime achievement. He died in Greenwich, Connecticut in 1995.

James Bradbury Thompson, prominent graphic designer, was born in Topeka, Kansas, on March 25, 1911. He began designing books in high school, where he designed yearbooks, and designed his college yearbook at Washburn College, where he obtained a B.A. in economics in 1934. Thereafter he worked in New York City as a designer, and served as art director for the Office of War Information's publications division from 1942 to 1945. Thompson was well-known for his long association with the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (Westvaco), for which he designed the American Classic Book Series. He was art director of Mademoiselle for fourteen years, and throughout his career, he designed or redesigned more than thirty five magazines, including Business Week and the Smithsonian Magazine. In 1969, Thompson was commissioned by Marshall Field IV to design a Bible similar to the Gutenberg folio edition. Four hundred copies of the Washburn College Bible were published in 1979 by Oxford University Press, and it became an instant classic. Thompson received many awards and honors during his lifetime, including gold medals from the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the National Society of Art Directors. For many years he was a visiting critic and visiting professor at the Yale University School of Art and Architecture. He married Della Deen Dodge in 1934 and they had four children. Bradbury Thompson died on November 1, 1995.