Graphic Design Doug “Big Dog” Oliver passed away in December 2014. Photo courtesy of Kyle Oliver.

Ask anybody who knew Graphic Design alumnus Doug Oliver (BFA 78) to describe the late designer’s personality and you’re likely to hear “larger than life.”

That reputation rang true last month when approximately 60 individuals—friends, family, colleagues and Art Center alumni—gathered on March 19 at Lithographix in Hawthorne, California for an informal celebration of the man’s life.

The Kansas-born Oliver, who passed away last December at the age of 63, left an indelible mark in the graphic design world. The annual reports he designed for institutions like the W.M. Keck Foundation and Northrop Grumman transformed potentially laborious information into exquisite works that captured the reader’s imagination.

Doug Oliver was known for the exquisite annual reports he produced for institutions ranging from Graphis (left) to Lockheed Martin (right). Images courtesy of Kyle Oliver.

In attendance at the memorial were Oliver’s wife Betsy, his sons Bennett and Kyle, and his daughter Reilly. According to Kyle, his father was very proud to have graduated from Art Center—which no doubt led him to teach at the College in the late ’80s and occasionally in subsequent decades—and was amazed at how he ended up at the College.

“While attending University of Kansas, my dad ‘helped’ his girlfriend, now my mom, with an art project involving a Rube Goldberg machine,” said Kyle, a designer himself, who has followed in his father’s footsteps. “The instructor somehow found out my dad had really shaped the piece and put him in touch with a counselor. That counselor handed him an Art Center catalog and told him he needed to apply.”

The memorial was organized by Randy Parkes, vice president of marketing at Lithographix; Graphic Design alumna Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt (BFA 89) of St. Louis-based Kuhlmann Leavitt, Inc.; and Graphic Design alumna Jane Kobayashi (BFA 84), partner and art director at Santa Monica-based 5D Studio.

“His nickname was ‘Big Dog’ and he was the ‘Big Dog.’” said Parkes of Oliver, whom he first met in 1984, when the two of them collaborated on an annual report for St. Francis Medical Center. “He was one of the true legends of graphic design in the country, and he had a very strong personality.”

The Little Book of Big Dog One Liners, designed by Deanna Kuhlmann-Leavitt.

To capture some of that personality, Kuhlmann-Leavitt designed and distributed to attendees a small book titled The Little Book of Big Dog One Liners.

“Doug was known for his sharp wit and sometimes hilariously crude tongue,” said Kuhlmann-Leavitt—whose 14-year career with Oliver began with an internship at Morava and Oliver Design Office while she was still a student at the College—of the collection of “Dougisms” that anybody who worked with Oliver would immediately recognize.

Some of the more family-friendly entries include: “Our job is to protect you from yourself,” “That piece has client tracks written all over it,” and “I’m gonna get out of the way of the photography.”

“It was really touching,” said Kyle of the memorial, which brought people in from all over the country, including Oliver’s mentor Mike Weymouth, who flew out from Boston for the event. “The only shame was that my dad wasn’t there to see it. He would’ve loved it. He would have been so moved.”

Doug Oliver worked with photographer Bill Varie to create this stunning 1984 annual report for the W.M. Keck Foundation. During the shoot at the Keck Observatory on Mauna Kea in Hawai’i, Oliver and Varie were disappointed by the lack of stars in the night sky. They later learned that the low oxygen levels made the stars impossible for them to see with their eyes. Image courtesy of Kyle Oliver.