Don Trousdell

Don Trousdell was a graphic designer and artist, who entered the profession during the "Golden Age" of advertising. During his 45-year career, Trousdell won more than 500 national and international awards for his work. In the 1960s, his art studio Mabey Trousdell worked with clients like U.S. Army to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). Trousdell taught at both Syracuse and Kansas Universities.

Trousdell grew up in Newark, New Jersey. He attended Newark Arts High School and Pratt Institute, where he learned advertising design. He began his professional career as a graphic designer in an art studio.

Known for his themed exhibits, Trousdell viewed himself as a “storyteller.” He spent hours extensively researching for each series and each piece he worked on. He had over 38 one-man shows—36 of which were themed shows. One of his last exhibits, “Ordinary People,” immediately followed the Picasso exhibit in St. Augustine, Florida. That series, "Ordinary People," tells the stories of the early settlers of America's oldest city, St. Augustine.

Trousdell is the author and illustrator of two books Dockyard Cats and The Cheating Game. The former takes an illustrated trip to the Bermuda Dockyard to discover its history and search for cats. The latter is an illustrated history (with baseball jargon) about the history of cheating in baseball. Trousdell published The Cheating Game, a book about all the ways that baseball players cheated in order to get ahead, or win a game.

In a 2016 article in St. Augustine Record, Trousdell talked about his philosophy for art: “The message for me is art can be anywhere... What’s neat about that is breathing fresh air into an area you would never think about going there to view art.” His creative process and aesthetic were referenced in several books about graphic and creative design, including Dialogues with Creative Legends and Aha Moments in a Designer's Career by David Calvin Laufer and Type and Image: The Language of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs.

Trousdell died February 3, 2017.