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Born and raised in New York City, Thomas Maitland Cleland became one of this nation's premier graphic artists and typographers. At age 15, Cleland convinced
his family to send him to the Artist Artisan Institute, a struggling art school in New York City. It was there that he became fascinated by graphic design and typesetting. His first success as a graphic artist came when he submitted a series of drawings to
a trade journal, the American Bookmaker. Later, he sold a decorative border to an
illustrated sports magazine for five dollars. Flushed with these small successes, he left art school for good at age 16.
With the help of a family friend who was a printer, Cleland began teaching himself the art of typesetting and printing by working on pamphlets, handbills and booklets. In 1907 he became the art editor of McClure's Magazine and also did a thriving business in advertising design. His clients included Pierce Arrow and Marmon automobiles. He developed the design formats for Fortune and Newsweek and included book publisher Alfred A. Knopf among his admirers. In 1921 Cleland published A Grammar of Color, a design handbook that is still a standard among graphic artists and designers |
