Gere Kavanaugh

Gere Kavanaugh (born 1929) is an American textile, industrial, and interior designer. She is the principal of Gere Kavanaugh Designs.

Gere Kavanaugh was born in 1929 and grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She earned a BFA from the Memphis Academy of Art and was the third woman to receive a MFA degree from Michigan's Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Kavanaugh worked as a stylist for General Motors primarily designing exhibitions to showcase automobiles, but also displays, created model kitchens, and interiors. She was part of the first group of women designers at GM, dubbed the "Damsels of Design" by design director Harley Earl. In 1960, she left GM for a position in the Detroit offices of architect Victor Gruen, known as the father of the shopping mall. There, she designed interiors of retail stores and shopping centers across the country. The firm later moved to Los Angeles where she became friends with Frank Gehry. She later shared studio space with Gehry, Don Chadwick, and Deborah Sussman where she founded Gere Kavanaugh/Designs (GK/D) in 1964.

Over the years, Kavanaugh has designed ceramics, light fixtures, homes, store interiors, textiles, town clocks, and furniture. In the 1970s, she worked with furniture company Terra to design the “California umbrella.” Unable to patent the design, she started an alumni product archive at Cranbrook where alums could donate work which companies could reproduce and pay royalties directly to the school.

She was the first interior designer to win a COLA grant from the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department. Her work was included in the Pacific Standard Time: Art in L.A., 1945-1980 exhibit. Kavanaugh also designed a research room and typeface for the Nixon Presidential Library and Museum.

She was awarded the Julia Morgan Icon Award at the Los Angeles Design Festival in 2014. She also received the American Institute of Graphic Arts (AIGA) Medal in 2016.

Kavanaugh lives in Angelino Heights.