Michael Schwab, Creating the Hero

“Michael has become the master of the graphic image, utilizing positive and negative space ingeniously, creating blocks of flat, bold color, and introducing type to augment and compliment his design.”

- Graphis Journal

“Michael’s elegant and engaging design embodies European and American sensibilities. He makes each work unique by reducing his need to communicate with powerful and sensitive essentials.”

- Seymour Chwast, designer, illustrator, type designer

“Michael Schwab has the unique ability to make anything – from wine to opera to jazz – look alluring, authentic, and seductive. His images carry his unmistakable imprimatur, yet each is his own invention.”

- Louise Fili, designer

“There is a classic quality to his work – contemporary, but never trendy – that unique point of view.” - Robert Redford, actor, director, producer, activist

“As an architect relies on concrete and steel, Schwab uses black to build forms that prompt both immediate recognition and lasting memory.”

- Steven Heller, art director, journalist, critic, author

“Michael Schwab recalls the tradition of the Ukiyo-e as transmitted by the french fin de Siècle artists, Felix Vallotton, and Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, making it a style that is deceptively simple and powerfully effective.”

- David Lance Goines, poster artist, printer, author

“Like an island in a turbulent sea, the art of Michael Schwab is a welcome sight amidst the enigmatic and increasingly illegible landscape of contemporary art and design. In a community where the computer rules and messages often appear as cryptograms, Schwab is firmly rooted in the fundamental principals: Form Follows Function, Communication is Key.”

- Merrill C. Berman, author, collector

“A heroic silhouette. Negative and positive space, expertly visualized. Perfectly kerned type. The quintessential image of a swimmer, a landscape, a profile. Michael’s images are always uniquely, and memorably, Michael’s.”

- Jennifer Morla, designer and founder, Morla Design

“I adore Michael’s work – the strength and stillness. His portraits tell a story of his relationship with the subject. There’s a lot of Michael in his art.”

- Amy Tan, author

“Michael Schwab plunges into every project like a child leaping joyfully off a pier. He holds back nothing, bringing his big heart, dazzling craftsmanship, and keen eye to every project. What matters to Michael, more than anything else, is getting it right for his client. It is not about him. It is about understanding his clients’ need and collaborating with them to create something that really works. Michael looks for and speaks to the very best in each of us, tapping into our common humanity with his open-hearted kindness, respect and appreciation for life’s intricacies.”

- Lucy Blake, Conservationist, President of the Northern Sierra Partnership

“Michael’s images are hard to ignore and seemingly jump up and grab you from the surface of the paper.” 

- Novum Gebrauschsgraphik

“Michael lives in the shadows. And that is a beautiful thing.” 

- Rich Silverstein, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners

“The basic premise of my work is this: The message must be succinct, immediate, and legible from ‘way across the room’.” 

- Michael Schwab

“Schwab’s studio is part barn, part high-tech enclave tucked away at the foot of Mount Tamalpais in San Anselmo, California. The ceiling is sloped, beamed and airy. On top of the fireplace is a row of awards. It is a majestic space, uncluttered and drenched with light, yet here and there are pieces a prop master would love – an ancient pair of ski poles, a polo mallet, a National Park ranger’s hat, deer antlers and a gigantic bass fiddle, needed for a Fillmore poster. Schwab’s reductive style has been hailed a welcome sight in an increasingly noisy landscape of computer-generated, contemporary design. Schwab says he embraces his own Western heritage through heroic, meaningful portrayals of the people and places that typify the American West.”

- Michelle Medley, excerpts from Dueling Margaritas