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The Most Famous

DESIGNERS from United States

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This page contains a list of the greatest American Designers. The pantheon dataset contains 86 Designers, 15 of which were born in United States. This makes United States the birth place of the 3rd most number of Designers behind United Kingdom and Italy.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary American Designers of all time. This list of famous American Designers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of American Designers.

Photo of Steve Jobs

1. Steve Jobs (1955 - 2011)

With an HPI of 85.63, Steve Jobs is the most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 155 different languages on wikipedia.

Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American businessman, inventor, and investor best known for co-founding the technology giant Apple Inc. Jobs was also the founder of NeXT and chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar. He was a pioneer of the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, along with his early business partner and fellow Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Jobs was born in San Francisco in 1955 and adopted shortly afterwards. He attended Reed College in 1972 before withdrawing that same year. In 1974, he traveled through India, seeking enlightenment before later studying Zen Buddhism. He and Wozniak co-founded Apple in 1976 to further develop and sell Wozniak's Apple I personal computer. Together, the duo gained fame and wealth a year later with production and sale of the Apple II, one of the first highly successful mass-produced microcomputers. Jobs saw the commercial potential of the Xerox Alto in 1979, which was mouse-driven and had a graphical user interface (GUI). This led to the development of the unsuccessful Apple Lisa in 1983, followed by the breakthrough Macintosh in 1984, the first mass-produced computer with a GUI. The Macintosh launched the desktop publishing industry in 1985 with the addition of the Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to feature vector graphics and PostScript. In 1985, Jobs departed Apple after a long power struggle with the company's board and its then-CEO, John Sculley. That same year, Jobs took some Apple employees with him to found NeXT, a computer platform development company that specialized in computers for higher-education and business markets, serving as its CEO. In 1986, he helped develop the visual effects industry by funding the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm that eventually spun off independently as Pixar, which produced the first 3D computer-animated feature film Toy Story (1995) and became a leading animation studio, producing over 27 films since. In 1997, Jobs returned to Apple as CEO after the company's acquisition of NeXT. He was largely responsible for reviving Apple, which was on the verge of bankruptcy. He worked closely with British designer Jony Ive to develop a line of products and services that had larger cultural ramifications, beginning with the "Think different" advertising campaign, and leading to the iMac, iTunes, Mac OS X, Apple Store, iPod, iTunes Store, iPhone, App Store, and iPad. In 2003, Jobs was diagnosed with a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor. He died of respiratory arrest related to the tumor in 2011, and in 2022, was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Photo of Iris Apfel

2. Iris Apfel (1921 - )

With an HPI of 60.06, Iris Apfel is the 2nd most famous American Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Iris Apfel ( AP-fəl; née Barrel; August 29, 1921 – March 1, 2024) was an American businesswoman, interior designer, and fashion designer, known for her flamboyant style, outspoken personality and oversized eyeglasses. In business with her husband, Carl, from 1950 to 1992, Apfel had a career in textiles, including a contract with the White House that spanned nine presidencies. In retirement, she drew acclaim for a 2005 show at the Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art featuring her collection of costume jewelry and styled with clothes on mannequins as she would wear them. She became a fashion icon, was the focus of the 2014 Albert Maysles documentary Iris, then signed to IMG in 2019 as a model at age 97.

Photo of Betsy Ross

3. Betsy Ross (1752 - 1836)

With an HPI of 56.31, Betsy Ross is the 3rd most famous American Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Elizabeth Griscom Ross (née Griscom; January 1, 1752 – January 30, 1836), also known by her second and third married names, Ashburn and Claypoole, was an American upholsterer who was credited by her relatives in 1870 with making the second official U.S. flag, accordingly known as the Betsy Ross flag. Though most historians dismiss the story, Ross family tradition holds that General George Washington, commander-in-chief of the Continental Army and two members of a congressional committee—Robert Morris and George Ross—visited Mrs. Ross in 1776. Mrs. Ross convinced George Washington to change the shape of the stars in a sketch of a flag he showed her from six-pointed to five-pointed by demonstrating that it was easier and speedier to cut the latter. However, there is no archival evidence or other recorded verbal tradition to substantiate this story of the first U.S. flag. It appears that the story first surfaced in the writings of her grandson in the 1870s (a century after the fact), with no mention or documentation in earlier decades. Ross made flags for the Pennsylvanian navy during the American Revolution. After the Revolution, she made U.S. flags for over 50 years, including 50 garrison flags for the U.S. Arsenal on the Schuylkill River during 1811. The flags of the Pennsylvania navy were overseen by the Pennsylvania Navy Board. The board reported to the Pennsylvania Provincial Assembly's Committee of Safety. In July 1775, the President of the Committee of Safety was Benjamin Franklin. Its members included Robert Morris and George Ross. At that time, the committee ordered the construction of gunboats that would eventually need flags as part of their equipment. As late as October 1776, Captain William Richards was still writing to the committee or Council of Safety to request the design that he could use to order flags for their fleet. Ross was one of those hired to make flags for the Pennsylvanian fleet. An entry dated May 29, 1777, in the records of the Pennsylvania Navy Board includes an order to pay her for her work. It is worded as follows: The Pennsylvania navy's ship color included (1) an ensign; (2) a long, narrow pennant; and (3) a short, narrow pennant. The ensign was a blue flag with 13 stripes—seven red stripes and six white stripes in the flag's canton (upper-left-hand corner). It was flown from a pole at the rear of the ship. The long pennant had 13 vertical, red-and-white stripes near the mast; the rest was solid red. It flew from the top of the ship's mainmast, the center pole holding the sails. The short pennant was solid red, and flew from the top of the ship's mizzenmast—the pole holding the ship's sails nearest the stern (rear of the ship).

Photo of Syd Mead

4. Syd Mead (1933 - 2019)

With an HPI of 53.43, Syd Mead is the 4th most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Sydney Jay Mead (July 18, 1933 – December 30, 2019) was an American industrial designer and neo-futurist concept artist. He made designs for science-fiction films such as Blade Runner, Aliens and Tron. Mead has been described as "the artist who illustrates the future" and "one of the most influential concept artists and industrial designers of our time."

Photo of Milton Glaser

5. Milton Glaser (1929 - 2020)

With an HPI of 51.71, Milton Glaser is the 5th most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 23 different languages.

Milton Glaser (June 26, 1929 – June 26, 2020) was an American graphic designer, recognized for his designs, including the I Love New York logo; a 1966 poster for Bob Dylan; the logos for DC Comics, Stony Brook University, Brooklyn Brewery; and his graphic work on the introduction of the iconic 1969 Olivetti Valentine typewriter. In 1954, he also co-founded Push Pin Studios, co-founded New York magazine with Clay Felker, and established Milton Glaser, Inc. In 1969, he produced and designed "Short Subject", commonly known as "Mickey Mouse in Vietnam", a short 16mm anti-war film directed by Whitney Lee Savage (father of Adam Savage). His artwork has been featured in exhibits, and placed in permanent collections in many museums worldwide. Throughout his long career, he designed many posters, publications and architectural designs. He received many awards for his work, including the National Medal of the Arts award from President Barack Obama in 2009 and was the first graphic designer to receive this award.

Photo of Paul Rand

6. Paul Rand (1914 - 1996)

With an HPI of 51.29, Paul Rand is the 6th most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages.

Paul Rand (born Peretz Rosenbaum; August 15, 1914 – November 26, 1996) was an American art director and graphic designer. He was best known for his corporate logo designs, including the logos for IBM, UPS, Enron, Morningstar, Inc., Westinghouse, ABC, and NeXT. He was one of the first American commercial artists to embrace and practice the Swiss Style of graphic design. Rand was a professor of graphic design at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he taught from 1956 to 1969, and from 1974 to 1985. He was inducted into the New York Art Directors Club Hall of Fame in 1972.

Photo of Virgil Abloh

7. Virgil Abloh (1980 - 2021)

With an HPI of 49.68, Virgil Abloh is the 7th most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 27 different languages.

Virgil Abloh (; September 30, 1980 – November 28, 2021) was an American fashion designer and entrepreneur. He began his own line of luxury streetwear clothing, Pyrex Vision, in 2012, and became the chief executive officer of the Milan-based label Off-White, a fashion house he founded in 2013. Abloh was also the artistic director of Louis Vuitton's menswear collection beginning in 2018, and was given increased creative responsibilities across the LVMH brand in early 2021. A trained architect, Abloh, who also worked in Chicago street fashion, entered the world of international fashion with an internship at Fendi in 2009, alongside American rapper Kanye West. Abloh assumed the role of Creative Director at Donda, West's creative agency in 2010. The first African-American to be artistic director at a French luxury fashion house when he joined LVMH in 2018, Abloh was named by Time magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world that year. Abloh's design aesthetic which bridged streetwear and luxury clothing was described as transformative by The New York Times. According to The Wall Street Journal, he reached a level of global fame unusual for a designer, and as an inspirational figure, according to the BBC.

Photo of Ruth St. Denis

8. Ruth St. Denis (1879 - 1968)

With an HPI of 49.50, Ruth St. Denis is the 8th most famous American Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Ruth St. Denis (born Ruth Dennis; January 20, 1879 – July 21, 1968) was an American pioneer of modern dance, introducing eastern ideas into the art and paving the way for other women in dance. She was inspired by the Delsarte advocate Genevieve Stebbins. St. Denis was the co-founder in 1915 of the American Denishawn School of Dancing and Related Arts. She taught notable performers including Martha Graham and Doris Humphrey. In 1938, she founded the pioneering dance program at Adelphi University. She published several articles on spiritual dance and the mysticism of the body. Her signature solos continue to be performed. She was inducted into the National Museum of Dance and Hall of Fame in 1987.

Photo of Alan Freed

9. Alan Freed (1921 - 1965)

With an HPI of 47.64, Alan Freed is the 9th most famous American Designer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Albert James "Alan" Freed (December 15, 1921 – January 20, 1965) was an American disc jockey. He also produced and promoted large traveling concerts with various acts, helping to spread the importance of rock and roll music throughout North America. In 1986, Freed was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His "role in breaking down racial barriers in U.S. pop culture in the 1950s, by leading white and black kids to listen to the same music, put the radio personality 'at the vanguard' and made him 'a really important figure'", according to the executive director. Freed was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1991. The organization's website posted this note: "He became internationally known for promoting African-American rhythm and blues music on the radio in the United States and Europe under the name of rock and roll". In the early 1960s, Freed's career was destroyed by the payola scandal that hit the broadcasting industry, as well as by allegations of taking credit for songs he did not write and by his chronic alcoholism.

Photo of Colleen Atwood

10. Colleen Atwood (1948 - )

With an HPI of 47.27, Colleen Atwood is the 10th most famous American Designer.  Her biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Colleen Atwood (born September 25, 1948) is an American costume designer. Atwood gained prominence for her frequent collaborations with directors Jonathan Demme, Tim Burton, and Rob Marshall. She has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design twelve times, winning four awards for Chicago (2002), Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2016); the latter is the first Wizarding World film to win an Academy Award.

People

Pantheon has 15 people classified as designers born between 1752 and 1980. Of these 15, 3 (20.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living designers include Iris Apfel, Colleen Atwood, and Hank Green. The most famous deceased designers include Steve Jobs, Betsy Ross, and Syd Mead.

Living Designers

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Deceased Designers

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Overlapping Lives

Which Designers were alive at the same time? This visualization shows the lifespans of the 12 most globally memorable Designers since 1700.

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