Simms Taback, Art 1953
Simms Taback
Simms Taback, Art 1953, was a graphic designer, advertising agency art director, and a partner in a design/illustration office. He has created and published his own line of greeting cards and his illustration and design work has been cited by the Society of Illustrators, Art Directors Club, American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA), and the Greeting Card Association. Taback also designed and illustrated the first McDonald’s Happy Meal box.
Simms explains his process for creating books in this YouTube Video
He illustrated over thirty books for children. His work has been twice selected for the New York Times Best Illustrated Book Award and his adaptation of There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly was chosen as a Caldecott Honor Book for 1998. Taback later won the distinguished Caldecott Medal in 2000 for Joseph Had a Little Overcoat.
Taback taught illustration and design at the School of Visual Arts and at Syracuse University and has served as President of the Illustrators Guild and President of the Graphics Arts Guild, which awarded him the Guild’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 1998. He passed away on December 25, 2011.
Obituary in The New York Times
An extensive exhibition of his work was held at the Carle Museum in Amherst, MA in 2014. Learn More
Simms Taback received the Augustus Saint Gaudens Award in 2011. He was inducted into the Cooper Union Hall of Fame in 2011.