Catherine Kanner: Art Director, Teacher, Colleague, Collaborator, Client and Friend
- iamteejay
- Jul 4, 2023
- 3 min read
Updated: May 11
I have written about Catherine before, but as I approach my 30th year in business, she is worthy of a few more words of sentiment. As my Art Director at the Los Angeles Ballet, as a colleague teaching together at the Otis Institute of Art and Design, as a collaborator who has worked with me on numerous creative projects, as a client working for her on her own projects, and as a friend who has always been there for me in business and personal life, I have been in Catherine's circle of influence for 20+ years.
She is one of five who are directly responsible for the success of my career.
Longest Collaboration with an Art Director on a Single Project
Our professional relationship began with the rebirth of Los Angeles Ballet in 2005, when Catherine was asked to head up art direction for the dance company. Through our connection at the Otis Institute of Art and Design, she asked me to help her design, develop and maintain the new and upcoming Los Angeles Ballet website.
We would work in perfect harmony, launching season after season, repertoire after repertoire, for 17 successful seasons.
With the change in artistic directors and her desire to pursue her dream of growing her publishing company, The Melville Press, she embarked on a new journey, thus ending one of the longest collaborations I have ever had with another creative on a single project.
Collaborations and Referrals
During her tenure at the LAB, we collaborated on numerous projects which included websites for her husband, Winston Brock Chappell to promote his Los Angeles-based architecture firm, and her daughter Annakate Chappell to help establish a career as a screenwriter for film and television, and promote her self-published, fashion/lifestyle magazine "That’s Alright Mama".
Well-connected to creatives around Los Angeles, she referred me to and collaborated on the design and development of several websites for Lisa Gimmy Landscape Architecture. She got me in the door to work with agencies like Deutsch and Jack Morton, collaborating with teams on several large marketing campaigns from 2000 to 2004.
I nearly had an opportunity to work with her client, author Michael Crichton, but sadly, he passed on in 2008. Catherine’s work appeared in his novel, "Timeline".
We collaborated on the design and development of her own websites catherinekanner.com to promote her as a creative director and illustrator, and themelvillepress.com to promote her hand-bound book publishing company.
I am forever grateful, humbled, and honored to have Catherine as a creative director, colleague, collaborator, client, and most of all, a friend in my life. I look forward to many more years of working together in an environment that has always been rich with talent, creativity, and cultural value.
Who is Catherine Kanner?
Award-winning illustrator/designer with experience across editorial, advertising, and children's books. As an illustrator and book designer, she has worked for a variety of publishers, including Knopf, Random House, Little Brown, Scholastic, and many others. Her editorial work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times Opinion section, the New York Times, U.S. News and World Report, and many others. As publisher of The Melville Press, she has published illustrated, hand-bound limited editions of 200 or fewer, which have been collected internationally by private and special collections. In 2014, she was inducted into the Album Cover Hall of Fame for her illustrated cover of Bob Dylan's Slow Train Coming.
Do learn more about her at www.catherinekanner.com
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