1951 - 2021

James G. Thorpe

James Thorpe, born in 1951, is an award winning international graphic designer and former tenured professor of Graphic Design in the Department of Art at the University of Maryland College Park. For over 30 years he taught courses in 2D fundamentals, illustration and corporate-institutional identity. He specializes in poster design with an emphasis on social, cultural and political themes.

Educated in the United States and Europe, he holds an M.F.A from the University of Maryland and has extensive undergraduate and graduate level academic advising experience in studio art and graphic design.

His works have been exhibited and included in collections in the United States, Belgium, Poland, France, Germany, Japan, Finland, Russia, China, Mexico and Israel. His work is in the permanent collection of the International Poster Museum in Warsaw Poland.

Many of his works have been published in the professional journals including Graphis, NOVUM, Idea, Print, I.D. and Communication Arts.

In 2015, he curated the reunion exhibition of the 70th anniversary bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Japan, Questioning the Bomb, History and Non-Proliferation featuring a revered list of international graphic designers including Harry Pearce, Elizabeth Resnick, Kari Piippo and Cedomir Kostovic to name a few.

He is survived by his four children, Marc, Christa, Scott and Christopher.