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2004 AIGA MEDAL
Over a five-decade long career, James Cross's elegant and direct
graphic work has made a significant visual contribution to the
U.S.'s corporate landscape. He has generated and honed the visual
identities for such corporations as the independent research
organization RAND Corporation, global defense company Northrop, and
Simpson Paper. With each of these companies, Cross developed rich
and long-lasting relationships and was consequently empowered to
effect deep-level change.
During Cross's senior year at UCLA School of Fine Art he worked
part time in the RAND Corporation's System Development Division and
in 1956, when he graduated, he became their corporate design
director. Three years later when he had cultivated a design
department of twelve people, he began to be courted by IBM and
Northrop Corporation. Cross chose the Los Angeles-based Northrop
because, unlike IBM, it did not yet have an established design
culture and he relished the challenge of building something from
scratch. He set to work creating a visual identity for the company
that included annual reports characterized by their conceptual
black and white photography, simple classic typography and
extremely fine printing. Cross continued to work on Northrop
reports for the next 25 years.
He joined Saul Bass's studio for a short time and then, in 1963,
formed his own design firm that by the 1980's had offices in Los
Angeles, San Francisco and Newport Beach, CA. The firm's clients
included Fluor. Corp., Smith International Inc., Lockheed Corp.,
Western Digital Corp., the Newport Harbor Art Museum, and Ramada
Inns. In 1988 Cross Associates was acquired by the British
advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, with Cross himself as its
Managing and Creative Director until his departure in 1994.
Cross served on the Board of Directors for the International
Design Conference in Aspen in 1960, with specific responsibility
for increasing attendance by communicating with the domestic and
international design communities. He was also a board member of
AIGA, International President of Alliance Graphique Internationale,
and has received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art
Directors Club of Los Angeles.
Cross now lives in the Napa Valley and designs packaging and
related materials for many small high-end wineries including
Schramsberg Vineyards, Cakebread Cellars, Darioush Winery,
Spottswoode Winery, Duckhorn Winery, and Calera Wine Company.
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“Cross Associates is notable for its elegantly simple design and
for a sure touch in determining client needs.”
—Print, March/April 1984
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