Gary Anderson (Recycling)

Gary Dean Anderson (born 1947) is an influential graphic designer and architect. He is most well known as the designer of the recycling symbol, one of the most readily recognisable logos in the world.

Gary Anderson's contribution to modern graphic design has been compared to those of early pioneering modernist graphic designers such as Herbert Bayer. His design for a symbol to embody the concept of recycling has been compared to iconic trademarks such as those for Coca-Cola and Nike. It has been called one of America’s “most important design icons,” it is one of the most recognizable graphic symbols in the world and has helped to encourage global recycling. In some countries, such as the UK, the symbol carries such implicit meaning that it requires government permission to be used. Although the symbol is the most widely known of his accomplishments, Anderson has also made important contributions in the areas of urban planning and urban development.

Gary Anderson was born in 1947 in Honolulu, Hawaii, into a family with roots in rural Germany, France and Scandinavia, and more recently in Nebraska and the agricultural US Midwest. Midwestern forebears included members of the communal, utopian Icarian Movement as well as supporters of the populist progressive politics of William Jennings Bryan.

Gary’s father, Glen, left farming and became an electronics technician in the US Navy. As a result of his career in the military, he was re-stationed frequently to various locations throughout the Pacific Rim, resulting in long absences from the family during Gary’s early childhood and in the family’s relocating several times. Possibly as a result of the stress accompanying these unsettled circumstances, Gary’s mother Florence was hospitalized on several occasions suffering from bipolar disorder, periodically leaving Gary and his two sisters in the care of various relatives in Nebraska.

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