Emil Antonucci was born in 1929 in Brooklyn, New York to Italian immigrant parents. Upon graduating from The Cooper Union in 1950—where he was taught by artists, calligraphers, and designers Paul Standard, Philip Grushkin, and George Salter—Antonucci began working as a freelance illustrator and book designer for publishers such as Sheed & Ward, Charles Scribner’s Sons, and Harper & Brothers. Antonucci also contributed prominent graphics to public space throughout New York City, including neighborhood and district logos, information kiosks, maps, and other signage. His work, influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement typographer and printmaker Eric Gill, has been described as "soft modernism." Throughout his life, Antonucci explored a range of artistic mediums, from illustration to printmaking and publishing, as well as poetry, sound art, and filmmaking.

Antonucci won a Fulbright to study in Paris in 1955 while working as a freelance graphic designer, and a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1958. He used funds from the latter of these awards to found the letterpress, The Hand Press. In 1959, Antonucci released The Circus of the Sun by the poet Robert Lax, with whom he had become friends through progressive Catholic circles and associations. Antonucci would go on to release a number of other Lax broadsides and chapbooks through The Hand Press and his subsequent venture, Journeyman Press. Antonucci also collaborated with Lax on several films.

Antonucci became firmly established as a freelance designer when he was commissioned to design the logo of the Four Seasons Hotel and restaurant in 1959, a design still in use as of 2016. He earned the commission through his close working relationship with the architect Philip Johnson (who did the interior design at the Four Seasons). He would go on to do design work on a number of Johnson's other architectural projects, including the New York State Pavilion--part of the 1964 New York World's Fair--and Bobst Library at New York University.

As a freelance designer, Antonucci contributed many logo, sign, and map designs to highly-visible institutions and neighborhoods throughout New York City. He also worked with corporate clients to design logos, catalogs, brochures, annual reports, and other publicity material. Among his notable clients were Lincoln Center, the Museum of Contemporary Craft (now the Museum of Arts and Design), the Times Square Business Improvement District, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Ford Foundation, Parsons School of Design, and the City of New York Charter Revision commission.

Throughout his life and career, Antonucci was a committed Catholic, and contributed art and design work to a number of progressive Catholic journals, magazines, parishes, and other institutions. Having provided illustrations to the journals Catholic Worker and Jubilee, in 1964 Antonucci began a long-term affiliation with Commonweal as an illustrator, cover designer, and, sometimes, writer. His designs are commonly held to have revitalized the aesthetic of the magazine. Some of Antonucci's other notable religious-centered work include interior design for St. Thomas of Canterbury church in Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY, and the Congregation Beth Torah synagogue in Brooklyn.

In the nineties, Antonucci collaborated on a number of illustrated children's books with his close friend, the writer Ruth V. Cullen. Many of these book projects were published by the Paulist Press.

In addition to his design work, Antonucci taught at Parsons School of Design from 1958-1967, and later rejoined the faculty in 1980, where he taught courses such as "Senior Portfolio" and "Junior Corporate Design." Though only a part-time lecturer, Antonucci was actively engaged in program and curriculum design.

Antonucci died in 2006 in Brooklyn, where he'd lived most of his life. He never married, and had no children. He was survived by his sister, Catherine Antonucci.

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This biographical note, as well as other information in the finding aid, drew upon the following sources:

Steinfels, Peter. "Remembering Emil Antonucci," Commonweal blog, April 16 2015, https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/blog/remembering-emil-antonucci-and-commonweal.

Zhuang, Justin. "Design History 101: Quietly Beautiful Work by the Illustrator Who Drew the Four Seasons Logo," April 9 2015. https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/design-history-101-quietly-beautiful-work-by-illustrator-who-drew-four-seasons-logo/.