Wright Auction

After the war, Keig wed her first husband, Allen Chancellor Karsten, an officer in the US Army. The couple moved to Evanston, Illinois in 1945 and Keig accepted the position of art director for the firm Science Research and Associates. As director at SRA, Keig developed and designed the groundbreaking book Get THE Job, a guide for servicemen returning home from overseas. From 1945-46, she attended the New Bauhaus at the Illinois Institute of technology under the direction of László Moholy-Nagy, and would later teach at the Illinois Institute of Design herself.

In the 1950s, Keig served as the president of the Chicago Society of Typographic Arts, maintained a position at the firm of Dekovic-Smith and taught pottery classes at Hull House in the evenings. In 1958, she married her second husband Peter Keig and the couple welcomed their son two years later. In the late 1960s, Keig was named vice president of Goldscholl and Associates, a firm known for their progressive hiring practices and for designing the iconic logos of Motorola, Alcoa and Vienna Beef. She started her own practice, Susan Jackson Keig Design, in the mid-1970s and would continue maintain clients and develop projects until her death, ten days before her 100th birthday. 

With awards numbering more than 250, Keig’s career highlights are too many to list, but include becoming an AIGIA Fellow, lecturing at the most prestigious design programs in the nation, and being named a Distinguished Alumnae of the University of Kentucky. For nearly fifty years, Keig maintained a residence in the Mies van der Rohe designed 860 Lake Shore Drive building and filled her home with an eclectic collection modern design and original artwork. Wright is pleased to offer a selection of works from the collection of this visionary designer in American Design.