Reynold Ruffins was a Black artist, illustrator, graphic designer, painter, and teacher. Reynold Ruffins was born August 5, 1930 in New York.He graduated from the High School of Music and Art in Manhattan. After graduating from Cooper Union in 1951, became a founding member of Push Pin Studios along with fellow graduates Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, and Ed Sorel. In 1960 Ruffins left Push Pin Studios to work as a freelance artist and artistic director. Ruffins formed design studio Ruffins/Taback with Simms Taback in 1963. He did design work for Fortune magazine, GQ, the New York Times, IBM, New York Botanical Gardens, Essence magazine, Gourmet magazine, and others. In 1953 Ruffins married Joan Young, who had been a fellow student at Cooper Union, and they had four children. He illustrated his first children's book in 1969 and subsequently ended up illustrating over twenty children's books. Ruffins was a frequent collaborator with author Jane Sarnoff. Together they produced 14 children's books. He illustrated the book Running the Road to ABC, which earned him the Coretta Scott King Award for illustration from the American Library Association. In 1991 Ruffins collaborated with Whoopi Goldberg and Herbie Hancock to produce Koi and the Kola Nuts, a video and companion book. Reynold Ruffins also taught at the School of Visual Arts, Parsons-New School of Design, Queens College, and Syracuse University. Ruffins began painting in the 2000s and his work has been shown in national and international exhibitions. Throughout his long career, Ruffins earned many awards including the Augustus St. Gaudens Award and the Presidential Citation from Cooper Union, and awards from the New York Art Directors Club and the Society of Illustrators. Reynold Ruffins died July 11, 2021 in Sag Harbor, New York.

See also, New York Times Obituary Citation:

Green, Penelope. “Reynold Ruffins, Push Pin Studios Graphic Artist, Dies at 90.” The New York Times, 1 Aug. 2021. NYTimes.com, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/01/obituaries/reynold-ruffins-dead.html.

Award winning letter for Ruffins' illustrations of "Running the Road to ABC"

Award winning illustration for "Mioso: Once Upon a Time Tales from Africa", 1994.