Sheila Debretteville

• Professor
  Title
• Yale
  Company
• Design
  Industry
• About
  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 the Maryland Institute of Art, California College of the Arts, Moore College os Art and Otis College of Art and DEsign. The American Institute of Graphic Arts designated her a “Design egend”in 2006. Before opening the Sheila Studio in 1970 she worked as designer for Chanticleer Press, Yale University Press, and Olivetti Publicita in Milan. 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. Her numerous publications on art and culture include American Cinematographer, The Motown Album, 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. Her site-specific public artwork includes 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 and HILLHOUSE in New Haven; and Step(pe) in Yekaterinburg, Russia. 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. In 2010 she was named the Caroline M. Street Professor of Graphic Design.

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  Added: March 2014 • Updated: March 2014