Garland Kirkpatrick (born 1960) is an American designer, educator, and curator based in Los Angeles.[1]
Kirkpatrick's work includes: social graphics visualizing complex socio-political issues ranging from the criminal justice system – capital punishment, mass incarceration, police brutality, and recidivism – to the environment, HIV-AIDS, homophobia, immigrant rights, and racism; and graphic design for cultural institutions, and community-based organizations.
After postgraduate work at the Institute of Design in Chicago (1985–1987), he received his Master of Fine Arts in Graphic Design (1990) from Yale University where he studied under modernist design icons Paul Rand, Armin Hofmann, and Alvin Eisenman.[1]
Kirkpatrick taught as a regular faculty in the Graphic Design program at the California Institute of the Arts (1992–2002), and served as Program Director for two years. He continues to teach design as a Professor at Loyola Marymount University, where he served as art department Chair (2011–2016).[2]
His work is held in the permanent collections of: the American Institute of Graphic Arts Design Archives (AIGA);[3][4][5][6] the Denver Art Museum, AIGA Awards Archive, Denver, CO (1991–Present); the Center for the Study of Political Graphics;[7][8][9][10][11] the Los Angeles County Museum of Art;[12] the Museum of Design, Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland;[13][14][15] the Oakland Museum of California;[16][17][18][19] the Cooper-Hewitt Museum of Art, Smithsonian Institution, New York, NY (1993); Self Help Graphics & Art, Los Angeles;[20][21] the Caridad Archive of Chicano Printmaking in California (CEMA), University of California, Santa Barbara;[20] the Gerald Buck Collection, Orange County, California; the Library of Congress, Washington, DC; the Online Archives of California;[22] the Huntington Museum, University of Texas-Austin, Austin, Texas; the Institute of Texas Cultures, University of Texas-San Antonio, San Antonio Texas; and other poster collectives including national Chicano and university archives in Arizona and New Mexico.
Kirkpatrick's graphic design work has been recognized by three national competitions of graphic design: the American Alliance of Museums' national museum publication competition, the American Center for Design (ACD) 100 show (1927–2002), and the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Communication Graphics competition. He received a City of Los Angeles (COLA) Individual Artist Fellowship for Design from the Department of Cultural Affairs (2003).[23][24][25][26]
Garland Kirkpatrick has worked closely with the cultural communities of Los Angeles, as both art director and graphic designer through his studio, Helvetica Jones. Selected nonprofits and cultural institutions include the Center for the Study of Political Graphics, ChangeLinks Community Newspaper, the Department of Cultural Affairs for the City of Los Angeles, the Getty Conservation Institute, and the Japanese American National Museum.[27][28] He was a Director of Experience Design at Sapient corporation in San Francisco and Los Angeles (2000–2001).
Garland Kirkpatrick was featured along with Emory Douglas and Chaz Maviyane-Davies in Observe | Make | State: A Collection of Design Reproductions and Artifacts that Convery Issues of Social Justice (2017), an exhibition curated by Karen Gutowsky-Zimmerman at Seattle Pacific University Gallery. Exhibitions and workshops include Urgent Messages: Exhibition and Risographic Poster Making Workshop (2018), curated by Tuan Phan at St. Edwards University, Fine Arts Gallery in Austin, Texas. Group exhibition and workshop featured Ashley Robin Franklin, Brandy Shigemoto, Claudia Gamundi, Edith Valle, Harsh Patel, Jesse Jaramillo, Jimmy Luu, Rene Cruz, Suthada Wadkhien, Tuan Phan, and Yewon Kwon.[citation needed]
His film credits as a designer include the independent film, Fast Food Nation (2006), and the political thriller, Game (2013).[29][30]
His film appearances include: Digging the Suez Canal with a Teaspoon (2019), a documentary film by David Stairs and Eric Limarenko.