Nationality American Role Graphic designer | Name Reynold Ruffins Education Cooper Union | |
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Born 1930 (age 84–85) New York City Awards Augustus St. Gaudens Award (Cooper Union)
Cooper Union Presidential Citation
Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award, 1997
New York Art Directors Club
Silver Medal, the Society of Illustrators Books My brother never feeds the cat Known for Painting, Children's literature, Graphic design Nominations Coretta Scott King Award for Illustrators | ||
Reynold Ruffins (born 1930 in New York City) is an African American painter, illustrator, and graphic designer. With Milton Glaser, Edward Sorel, and Seymour Chwast, Ruffins founded Push Pin Studios in 1954. An illustrator of more than twenty children's books, Ruffins is known for his "stylistic versatility, vibrant colors, and penchant for fanciful creatures." He has had many solo exhibitions and been part of group show exhibitions at Paris' Musee du Louvre, and in Milan, Bologna, and Tokyo.
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Biography
Ruffins attended the High School of Music & Art in New York City and Cooper Union. In 1954, he co-founded Push Pin Studios with fellow Cooper graduates Glaser, Sorel, and Chwast. In 1963, after leaving Push Pin, Ruffins founded another design studio with Simms Taback, a partnership which lasted for more than thirty years. Commercial clients included IBM, AT&T, Coca-Cola, CBS, Pfizer, the New York Times, Time Life, Fortune, Gourmet Magazine, and the U.S. Post Office.
Ruffins entered the field of children's book illustration in 1969, and throughout the 1970s and early 1980s he frequently collaborated with writer Jane Sarnoff.
In 1991, Ruffins teamed with Whoopi Goldberg and Herbie Hancock to produce "Koi and the Kola Nuts," a highly praised video for children which was part of Rabbit Ears Productions' We All Have Tales series.
Ruffins lives in Sag Harbor, New York, his wife Joan passed in 2013.
Teaching
A professor emeritus at CUNY's Queens College, Ruffins has also taught at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons The New School for Design, and was a visiting adjunct professor at Syracuse University.
Awards
Ruffins was the recipient of the Augustus St. Gaudens Award (presented by Cooper Union) for outstanding professional achievement in the arts. The Cooper Union Presidential Citation was also presented to Ruffins for his work and prominence in his profession. Ruffins' work led to awards from the New York Art Directors Club and a Silver Medal from the Society of Illustrators. Ruffins won the Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award in 1997 for the book Running the Road to ABC (written by Denize Lauture).