Mitch began his career in publication design in 1973, after graduating from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He has been the executive art director of PC Magazine, senior art director of Business Week and art director for the Business sections of The New York Times.
In 1987, Mitch founded Shostak Design, Inc. and designed publications for American Express, IBM, Money, The New York Times, People, Playboy, Scholastic, and Sports Illustrated. He moved to San Francisco in 1991 as Art Director of PC World and returned to New York City in July 1993 and established Shostak Studios, Inc.
Currently Mitch serves on the Advisory Board of Directors for the Society of Publication Designers and was Chairman of SPD’s 42nd Annual Publication Design Competition for Non-Newsstand Magazines. He has served as a judge for the American Society of Magazine Editors (ASME), the Society of National Association Publications (SNAP), the Society of Illustrators in NYC and the Illustrators Guild of Ireland. Mitch has been a speaker at SPD’s conferences in New York City, the Folio conference, ICON 3 Illustration Conference in Philadelphia, the MAGS conference in Atlanta and the SNAP conference in Washington, D.C.
Mitch is currently teaching a third year Communications/Graphic Design class at the School of Visual Arts on Thursday afternoons. He has taught graduate-level communication courses at Fordham University, a magazine design workshop at Radcliffe College and conducted editorial design workshops for IBM.
Fly-fishing, bike riding and scooting around on his Vespa are among Mitch’s favorite things to do outside the studio.