Stephanie Tevonian

Adjunct Associate Professor | Communication Design Foundation; Graphic Design

Education

BA, Vassar College
BFA, MFA, Yale University

Biography

Stephanie Tevonian is first-generation Armenian who grew up in an ethnically diverse middle class neighborhood in Washington Heights, Manhattan. She attended P.S. 189 and George Washington High School, where she graduated second with numerous honors. Tevonian graduated cum laude from Vassar College where she majored in French literature and minored in history.

After earning a college degree, Tevonian rejected the entire academic approach and wishing to work with “words and pictures,” she applied to the graphic design department at the Yale School of Architecture, which was known for welcoming those with a liberal arts background. She graduated with a BFA and an MFA and had such luminaries as Paul Rand, Herbert Matter, Walker Evans, and Bradbury Thompson as her professors.

Professionally, Tevonian started by working in publishing (Random House, Knopf, Dutton, McGraw Hill) and learned how to design book interiors and then exteriors. She specialized in cookbooks and did many for Judith Jones at Knopf. At Grove Press, she did their corporate work and also participated in Evergreen Review.

From 1980 through 1988, Tevonian was a partner in Works, along with Keith Godard and Hans van Dijk, and participated in broader campaigns, such as the Brooklyn Bridge Centennial and Statue of Liberty anniversary. Subsequent to that, she was again on her own and worked in publishing, art and the non-profit sectors with such long-term clients as the Museum of the Moving Image, Learning Enrichment, and the Ricco-Maresca Gallery.