Building on an innovative career spanning more than 7 decades, at 94-years-old, Gere continues to make work out of her home studio in Los Angeles, CA. Through her own independent studio, Gere has created a kaleidoscope of work that knows no boundaries.
From furniture and graphic design under her own design label, exhibitions to textiles, toys, sculpture and urban design, to an extensive personal research library on color.
Spend an afternoon with Gere, and names will be sure to come up in conversation like Ruth Asawa (a frequent collaborator), Frank Gehry (her first LA studio mate in the 1960's), Buckminster Fuller (an early source of inspiration for The Easy Chair), Joseph Magnin (the owner of the high end department stores Gere designed for), and Sister Corita Kent (an influential artist who set Gere up with a place to stay when she first moved to LA).
These are always told with a streak of mischievous humor by Gere when she recounts tales with her good friends, and an afternoon with Gere is a reminder that life is design, and design is life.
Gere's "Fantasy Flowers" being installed at Highland Mall in Austin, TX (1971).
Gere's design career first took off while she was a student at Cranbrook, the famed design school just outside of Detroit. After reading about the school in a magazine, Gere applied (without her parents knowledge) and went thanks to a loan from a foundation.
In 1952, she became one of the first women to earn an MFA from the institution.
After graduation, she was recruited by General Motors’ Styling Division as part of a groundbreaking all-female team where she designed for trade shows, interior models, and various other projects until 1958.
Gere at her Silverlake home (2023).
South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA (1967).
In the ‘60s, Gere joined the offices of Victor Gruen where she began designing interiors for retail stores and shopping centers across the country.
The firm, along with Gere, would move to Los Angeles where she would eventually go on to establish her own independent design studio, ‘Gere Kavanaugh/Designs’. This period, referred to by AIGA as "a kind of petri dish for ideation" for Gere saw her expanding her practice and scope of work at a radical pace, inspired by the environment and opportunities California offered her.
For the latter half of the 20th, and early part of the 21st century - Gere Kavanaugh/Designs has produced a tremendous body of important and influential work across an array of discplines.
Through her design practice has come a kaleidoscope that ranges from furniture, graphic design, exhibitions to textiles, toys, sculpture and urban design, to an extensive personal research library on color.
In the foreword from the book “A Colorful Life: Gere Kavanaugh, Designer”, co-author Louise Sandhaus writes:
”Color has been an essential element of (Gere's) projects and the constant subject of her research. Her move to Los Angeles in 1960 only deepened her obsession with color, as she absorbed and reflected the vibrant hues of her Southern California environment. After that moment, everything went bright.”
”(Gere) always has something insightful to say, and she says it with that certain oomph that belongs to all larger-than-life creative figures. Her irrepressible, kaleidoscope vision channels the magic of the universe into an alchemical mixture of creativity and imagine. Our lives would be gloomy with the Gere Kavanaughs of the world to show us to look—to see—through their special lenses.”
With a career spanning over 70 years, Gere’s contributions to design are unmatched - we’re honored to have partnered with her on The Gere Easy Chair and we can’t wait to see what she does next.
Featured Product(s): The Gere Easy Chair