Katherine McCoy

Katherine McCoy (born October 12, 1945) is an American graphic designer and educator, best known for her work as the co-chair of the graduate Design program for Cranbrook Academy of Art.

During her extensive career spanning education and professional practice, McCoy worked with groundbreaking design firm Unimark, Chrysler Corporation, and with Muriel Cooper in the early days of MIT Press while at the Boston design firm Omnigraphics. McCoy's career in education was similarly broad, teaching at Cranbrook Academy of Art, Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, and the Royal College of Art, London. She is also the co-founder of High Ground, a yearly conference created for professional designers.

Early career

McCoy was born Katherine Jane Braden in Decatur, Illinois in 1945. As a student, she first studied interior design at Michigan State University but switched to industrial design, in which field she graduated in 1967. A visit of the Museum of Modern Art during a family trip to the New York World's Fair in 1964 had made her aware that her interest was in the power of design.

Shortly after graduation, McCoy joined Unimark International, a design firm led by many key figures in American Modernist graphic design, including Massimo Vignelli, Ralph Eckerstrom of Container Corporation, Jay Doblin and Herbert Bayer. It was at the interdisciplinary Unimark offices where McCoy was exposed to the strict Swiss typographic and design approaches which came to permeate much of American corporate communications through the late 1960s and 70s.

Following Unimark, McCoy worked for a year in the corporate identity offices of the Chrysler Corporation, then joined the Boston design firm Omnigraphics, where she worked on several projects for the MIT Press with Muriel Cooper. She also worked with other professional practices including Xerox Education Group, and major advertising agencies.

In 1971 she founded the practice McCoy & McCoy, Inc, with her husband, Michael McCoy. The process that Katherine and Michael McCoy brought to the program initiated change in many aspects. It transformed the design program itself and the studios, along with its critiques, centered on the possibility of breaking from the norms of everyday design practice. Cranbrook graduated over 200 students under the direction of the McCoys, many of whom also went on to become design educators. Although the McCoy's program was sometimes thought to be controversial, their tenure at Cranbrook resulted in the graduation and success of many known designers, including Lorraine Wild, Edward Fella, Nancy Skolos and Tom Wedell, P. Scott Makela, Andrew Blauvelt, Lucille Tenazas, Meredith Davis and Patrick Whitney. After McCoy left Cranbrook in 1995, she held several other teaching positions. Her most well-known position with the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, from 1995–2003, and the Royal College of Art in London.

In 1991, Katherine and Michael McCoy, along with a team 2-D students, produced the book "Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse" (Rizzoli International Publications). The book documented the work that produced in the Cranbrook studios during the 1980s, and it "probably sealed the reputation of the school" Later, they moved to Chicago where they spent each fall semester at the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, giving senior lectures and seminars until 2004.

Later career

McCoy now consults in communications design, design curriculum planning at Kansas City Art Institute and post-professional design education as a partner of McCoy & McCoy, and High Ground Tools and Strategies for Design. High Ground Design is a series of workshops created by Katherine and her husband, Michael McCoy for other professional designers to work in their studio. High Ground is dedicated to expanding design skills and methods, as well as opening up to the vision of design, questioning assumptions and redefining the nature of design.

Awards Design awards include the ID Magazine Annual Design Review, the AIGA Communication Graphics Show, the STA 100 Show, the Print Regional Design Annual, the Type Directors Club of New York TDC Show, the New York Art Directors Club One Show, the Society of Publication Designers, the Interiors Magazine 'I' Awards, and the Industrial Designers Society of America IDEA Awards". In 1999, she received the highest form of recognition for graphic design, the AIGA Medal.

1984- United States Presidential Design Awards 1987- Society of Typographic Arts Educator Award 1987- Joyce Hall Distinguished Professorship at Kansas City Art Institute 1988- United States Presidential Design Awards 1991- United States Presidential Design Awards 1994- Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design 1999- Medalist of the American Institute of Graphic Arts 2000- Industrial Designers Society of America Educators Award 2004- Honorary Doctorate from Kansas City Art Institute 2005- Design Minds Award by the Smithsonian Museum's National Design Awards