James Cross is a graduate of UCLA School of Fine Art. He opened Cross Associates design firm in 1963, eventually having offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Newport Beach, California. His work was described in Graphis as ‘influencing and shaping the visual appearance of major corporations where he gained an international reputation for design conveying simplicity, clarity, depth and integrity.’ He has served on the board of directors of the International Design Conference in Aspen and the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Los Angeles Art Directors Club and the AIGA Legacy Medal. He has taught at UCLA, Arizona State University and the Portland School of Art in Maine. In 1988 Cross Associates was purchased by Saatchi & Saatchi, LLC. Jim is presently consulting and creating packaging for the wine industry in the Napa Valley, California where he and his wife, Sue, live.