A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer

A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer by Louise Sandhaus and Kat Catmur / ISBN 9781616897628 / 220-page hardcover, 7.75 x 10.5 inches, from Princeton Architectural Press / discounted book but close to like new

From the author of the California design book Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots (and very attractive like that book)

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"A Colorful Life is among the most exuberant design books I've seen in years. This one is not to be missed." - Steven Heller, The Daily Heller

"A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer, the first monograph on Kavanaugh's life and work, tells her story through a fascinating avalanche of visual material. The book by fellow Southern California designers Louise Sandhaus and Kat Catmur surveys Kavanaugh's seven decades of work, which reveals a dazzling wealth of intuition and talent, plus her elastic ability to distill the present moment like a true marble-walker." - Los Angeles Times

The designer Gere Kavanaugh is an irrepressible force of nature who epitomized the craft and folk vibe of the '60s and '70s California design scene and remains a larger-than-life personality today. Raised in Memphis, Tennessee, Kavanaugh became in 1952 only the third woman to earn a degree in Cranbrook Academy of Art's design program. After successful stints as one of GM's so-called Damsels of Design and as director of interiors for Victor Gruen's architecture and planning firm, she opened Gere Kavanaugh/Designs. There, Kavanaugh put her unique stamp on textiles, furniture, toys, graphics, store and restaurant interiors, holiday decor, housewares, and public art—even designing and curating exhibitions. But perhaps her most enduring project has been the joyful, open-ended, ongoing experiment of her own lifestyle and homes, a dream of color and handcraft. Kavanaugh was awarded the AIGA Medal in 2016, recognizing her "prodigious and polymathic approach to design."

Louise Sandhaus is a graphic designer and graphic design educator. She has served as the Director of the Graphic Design Program at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) and is an AIGA Los Angeles Fellow and former national board member, as well as former chairperson of AIGA Design Educators Community (DEC).