Parsons School of Design was established in 1896 as the Chase School of Art. While founded as a school of fine arts instruction, it soon added courses in "applied arts," which became the primary focus under the direction of Frank Alvah Parsons. The name of the school changed several times, to the New York School of Art in 1902, then to the New York School of Fine and Applied Art in 1909. In 1940, the Board of Trustees voted to change the school's name to Parsons School of Design in recognition of Frank Alvah Parsons's leadership and to differentiate it from other, similarly named institutions.

The Publication Design Office produced promotional materials for Parsons School of Design. Poster designs were often the product of collaborative efforts between the Publication Design Office, students, and faculty. In 1979, the Otis Art Institute of Los Angeles became affiliated with Parsons School of Design. The organizational merger proved difficult to promote, as the two schools were across the country from each other. The then dean of Parsons, David Levy, proposed the idea to faculty member and Parsons art director Cipe Pineles of using an apple and an orange as the visual representation of the schools, the apple representing New York City (known as “the Big Apple”) and the orange representing Los Angeles. Pineles suggested Parsons student Janet Amendola, who was known for her illustrations of fruits and vegetables, to execute Levy’s vision (Scotford, 1999).

Source: Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Janet Amendola received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in illustration from Parsons School of Design in 1979. While a student, Amendola created a series of paintings of fruits such as apples, oranges, and other citrus fruits, under the direction of Cipe Pineles. Pineles was the art director at Parsons who mentored a staff of students–including Amendola–in the creation of promotional materials to reshape the visual identity of the college (Scotford, 1999). Her art was utilized in Parsons's publicity materials for a decade after her graduation.

Amendola worked for many years as an illustrator and designer following her college education. She has various experience in art education and childcare and taught after school art programs in elementary schools while living in New York. Since 2016, Amendola has been a teacher at the Sharon Day Care in Connecticut.

Sources:

Parsonspaper Volume 3, no. 2, May 1979, Parsons School of Design academic departments, programs and schools, PC.02.01.02, New School Archives and Special Collections, The New School, New York, New York.

Scotford, Martha. Cipe Pineles: A Life of Design. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1999.

Sharon Day Care. “Our Team.” Accessed November 9, 2023. https://www.sharondaycare.org/our-team.

Janet Levy was the director of the Publication Design Office of Parson School of Design from approximately 1991 to 1999. Levy was responsible for designing announcements and publicity materials for Parsons.