Cover, “A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer”

Book about the life and career of designer, Gere Kavanaugh. 

Blurb from back of the book:
“The designer/maker 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 LA 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, public art—even designing and sewing her own clothes. But perhaps her most enduring project has been the joyful, open-ended, ongong experiment of her own lifestyle and homes, a California dream of color and handcraft. Kavanaugh was awarded the AIGA medal in 2016, recognizing her ““prodigious and polymathic approach to design.”A Colorful Life, the first book on Kavanaugh, elevates this under-recognized doyenne of design to her rightful place in the canon.”

Louise Sandhaus is principal of Louise Sandhaus Design and teaches in the graphic design department at California Institute of the Arts. She lives in Ojai, California.

Kat Catmur is a designer and illustrator from the UK. She teaches graphic design and typography at OTIS College of Art and Design. "