i was not a cool kid from the city, living in the east village like most of my young colleagues right out of school. i was a dopey kid living with her parents in the bronx. my hipness factor was extremely low. i didn’t encounter any real issues as a minority, though i was always the one people called on for ‘another’ point of view. —gail anderson about her experience studying at the school of visual arts

proclamation stamp

Anderson worked with art director Antonio Alcalá to produce the 2013 Emancipation Proclamation stamp—the first in a new civil rights set from the US Postal Service. To evoke the look of broadsides from the Civil War era, they employed Hatch Show Print of Nashville—one of the oldest working letterpress print shops in America. Afterwards, Anderson entered the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee that evaluates and makes recommendations on potential subject matter for US stamps.

my design heroes were all women—paula scher, carin goldberg, louise fili, henrietta condak and all of the other fabulous women doing book jackets, magazines, and album covers. at the school of visual arts, my classmates and i were fortunate to come of age in an era where we had strong female role models who were doing amazing work. —gail anderson