2022 AIGA Medalist: Louise Sandhaus

Even before she studied design formally, Sandhaus had always been surrounded by it. Born in 1955 near Boston, MA to parents who were both creative professionals, Sandhaus grew up in the kind of design-filled home that had a printmaking workshop—which doubled as a ping pong table—in its basement. Her mother Harriet Sandhaus worked for a local paper, penning an illustrated column called "Notes of a Shopper by Julie," and her father Norman Sandhaus was an art director, who produced things like aeronautics company manuals and tourist brochures. Creativity thrived in the Sandhaus home; however, when her family relocated to Orlando, FL, the move left her feeling alienated by her new conservative surroundings. She’s always possessed a rebellious spirit—that innate desire to push back against convention and conformity—and it was that quality that helped her forge her own path into the world of design even in a city that was a world away from the traditional design education hubs.

After interning at an ad agency during high school, Sandhaus went on to enroll in a two-year program in advertising design at The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, FL. She was surprised to discover that many of her teachers had been working designers in New York and brought with them the aesthetics and knowledge of east coast modernism and the New York art scene. 

The design and conceptual thinking skills she acquired in the short program helped her land a job back in Boston at East West Journal, an alternative lifestyle magazine. She moved up quickly in the company, beginning as a staff designer before transitioning to art director by 23. After gaining recognition for her work, she decided to leave the magazine to freelance and experiment with her craft, all while teaching at the Art Institute of Boston. 

By the mid-1980s Sandhaus was living in Cambridge, MA, where she met Muriel Cooper, the first design director of MIT Press. Cooper was starting to develop ideas around digital design, and it was through their conversations and informal mentorship that Sandhaus was inspired to pursue a graduate degree. While exploring grad school options, she took a spontaneous trip to Santa Monica, CA to visit an old friend. That decision was a pivotal moment for Sandhaus, one that would begin a lifelong love affair with the west coast and California design. “Living on the east coast my whole life, I barely even knew California existed,” Sandhaus said. “But when I stepped off that plane, I thought I’d died and gone to paradise. That’s what it felt like to be here.”

During her trip, she connected with several local designers, including Lorraine Wild, a professor at CalArts in Valencia, 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. The campus, just a stone’s throw from Six Flags Magic Mountain, is situated between swaths of tract housing, fast food drive-thrus, and the freeway. It’s an unexpected location for a school with such a vibrant history of avant garde thinking and making, and yet it’s also quintessentially LA, a melting pot of creativity and culture whose gifts to its citizens are often tucked away in unassuming strip malls or suburban neighborhoods far from the arts district or downtown core.

“When I visited CalArts, I instantly knew this is where I belong,” said Sandhaus. In many ways she saw herself reflected in the school; that same rebellious spirit was palpable. “CalArts pushes you in ways you don’t anticipate; it’s the curriculum and experimental environment that enables students to evolve into designers that they’d never expect they’d become,” she said. At CalArts, she received her BFA and MFA back-to-back in 1993 and 1994, followed by a stint at the Jan van Eyck Academy in The Netherlands. She returned to the US, and CalArts, in 1996, when she was hired as a faculty member. It’s here that she continues to teach to this day.