|
2004 AIGA MEDAL
Kit Hinrichs has been a partner of Pentagram since 1986,
when his West Coast branch of the bicoastal association Jonson,
Pedersen, Hinrichs & Shakery became Pentagram's San Francisco
office. His work, such as the 22 annual reports he has designed for
the paper company Potlatch and his design of @Issue: The
Journal of Business and Design (that he co-founded,) is
characterized by its narrative quality and an encyclopedic set of
references. His instincts as a visual storyteller and a collector
inform his work and his 3,000-piece-strong collection of American
flags and American flag memorabilia has formed the basis of several
exhibitions and two books.
In 1963 Hinrichs, just graduated from the Art Center College of
Design, CA, arrived in New York to look for illustration and design
work. After three years of working in several New York design
offices, including Designers 3 and the Reba Sochis design office,
he formed an independent design consultancy with Anthony Russell.
In 1972 Hinrichs and his wife Linda formed Hinrichs Design
Associates. During this period they specialized in an imaginative
rethinking of the annual report, focusing less on statistics and
more on conveying through storytelling the character of a
company.
In 1976 they moved to San Francisco and formed a bi-coastal
partnership with Vance Jonson, B. Martin Pedersen, and Neil
Shakery, called Jonson, Pedersen, Hinrichs & Shakery. Hinrichs
began to build a client list that included Crocker Bank,
Transamerica, and Potlatch (for whom he has now designed more than
22 annual reports.) In 1986 the San Francisco office merged with
Pentagram.
Hinrichs is an AIGA fellow, a former AIGA board member, and a
member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Currently, he is a
trustee of Art Center College of Design and serves on the
Accessions Design and Architecture committee at the San Francisco
Museum of Modern Art.
Hinrichs is an avid collector, with many of his collections
feeding his work. For most of his professional life he has been
fascinated by the multitudinous ways in which the American people
have graphically interpreted red and white stripes and a blue field
with white stars. His 3,000-piece-strong collection of American
flags and American flag memorabilia has formed the basis of several
exhibitions and the books Stars & Stripes: Ninety-Six Top
Designers and Graphic Artists Offer Their Personal Interpretations
of Old Glory, (1987, Chronicle Books,) and Long May She
Wave: A Graphic History of the American Flag (2001, Ten Speed
Press.)
—
“Kit talks about 'time bridges' that constantly connect his past
lives with his present work. Everything—his Boy Scout merit badges,
old Popular Mechanics magazines that he reads as a kid
with their 'little columns of stuff,' even the King James Bible
'red letter' edition with important passages in red—comes into play
today.”
—Owen Edwards on Kit Hinrichs in “Hunter Gatherer,” Profile
Pentagram Design, Phaidon, 2004.
|