Rose Vincent is the Resource Sharing Librarian of the LuEsther T. Mertz Library at the New York Botanical Garden.

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The prolific painter and illustrator Reynold Ruffins (1930 to 2021) influenced the graphic art world since 1951. A Cooper Union graduate, he met classmates Seymour Chwast, Edward Sorel, and Milton Glaser, and together they formed the renowned graphic illustration organization Push Pin Studios. Taking the advertising and marketing world by storm, their innovative bright and cheerful designs were inspired by art nouveau and the Victorian age.

After several years working at the New York-based studio, Ruffins connected with his friend Simms Taback and they created their own works under the Simms/Taback company. Ruffins remained busy as an art professor and book illustrator at Queens College, and produced commissioned works for companies around the world, including Charles Scribner & Son, Gourmet Magazine, Coca-Cola, CBS, Essence Magazine, The New York Times, Cosmopolitan Magazine, Random House, Black Enterprise Magazine, Natural History Magazine, National Geographic, and the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG).

In 1964, Ruffins’s work was noticed by NYBG’s Public Relations Manager, Phil Clark, and he was commissioned to design several flyers, maps, and brochures. His colorful, whimsical illustrations graced the membership and visitor guides and, upon careful examination of the graphics, his floral designs likely influenced the architecture of the Garden’s Information and Sales Center in 1968. Located by the main gate area, the center was constructed by architectural firm MacFayden and Knowles. Above the center were fanciful flowers up to four feet in diameter with bright flower circles mounted on 14-foot standards to attract visitors. The Center served as a space to display cases and bulletin boards, and sold items such as gardening books, rare seeds, postcards, guidebooks, and souvenirs. By the 1970s, Ruffins’s designs helped rebrand the Garden.

A Black leading graphic designer, Ruffins earned numerous awards and medals throughout his career and continued painting well into his 80s, exhibiting his art across the Hamptons: East End African American Museum and Center for Excellence (2010), Southhampton Cultural Center (2015), and John Jermain Library (2018). In February 2016, Ruffins was featured in Long Island newspaper Dan’s Papers and, while discussing his use of acrylic paint and artistic influences drawing from Picasso, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky, he reflected on his time creating works for the Garden: “I recall the pleasure I had doing other [non-abstract] stuff, such as the map and flyer materials I did for the Bronx Botanical Garden. One day when Aaron Copeland was performing on the lawn there and people were filing in with my materials, my kids said, ‘Daddy did that?'”

Ruffins’s work captured the Garden’s Flower Power spirit, and his visionary designs continue to earn recognition at the LuEsther T. Mertz Library. Drawing from the Library’s collections, the exhibition Botanically Groovy—Reynold Ruffins Designs offers visitors a vibrant look at the notable artist’s illustrative work and bold style. Check out the exhibit case on your next visit to Mertz Library!