Word: vanderbyl
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Among the San Franciscans, two are especially prominent, and have demonstrated particular staying power: Michael Vanderbyl, 40, and Michael Manwaring, 45. Although they have highly distinct styles, their parallels are striking. Both were born and reared in the Bay Area and educated at California art schools; both are lapsed devotees of European modernism. Despite success, both have kept their offices small. They do have some stylistic moves in common -- both show a fondness for fan shapes and silhouettes, and both have recently looked to turn-of-the-century Architect Josef Hoffmann for inspiration -- yet both have survived several years...
...Some of Vanderbyl's best work is found in a series of posters depicting postmodern architectural whimsies. He is wont to portray almost any three- dimensional object in gaily colored axonometric view, and the effect is a sort of jaunty rigor, Bauhaus on holiday. Another of Vanderbyl's fun-with- geometry motifs is a flurry of polychrome squiggles tossed onto a severe black or white field. In catalogs for Hickory Business Furniture, he has roughly scribbled in color over precise black-and-white photographs of chairs -- once again, antagonistic design impulses in playful coexistence...