Harold Linton

Linton has served as Director of the School of Art from 2005 – 2013, College of Visual and Performing Arts at George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia. Previously, Harold served as Chairman of the Department of Art at Bradley University, 1998 – 2005 developing scholarships, endowment, professional lecture and exhibition programs, internet technology initiatives, international study programs, and new undergraduate and graduate art and design studio concentrations. In 2001, he received the highest endowed award for professional excellence at Bradley University, Caterpillar Professor of Art, and simultaneously for the Department of Art, the William Rainey Harper Award for Department Excellence. In 2004, he was the recipient of a Fulbright-Hays Grant to study cultural life and contemporary social issues in South Africa. He subsequently authored a photo-essay exhibition catalogue with introduction by Barack Obama entitled, “The Children of South Africa”, as a fundraising and awareness program that travelled throughout the United States.

Having been associated with the College of Architecture and Design at Lawrence Technological University, Southfield, Michigan, 1974 – 1998, he served as Assistant Dean of the College of Architecture from 1991 – 1998 and as Chairperson of their new Department of Art and Design. His research on colour in 3d-design was recognized by an invitation to serve as co-founder and Professor of the first Master of Arts degree program in Colour Design in Europe at the University of Art and Design UIAH, Helsinki, Finland, 1996 – 1997.

Linton is the author of nineteen books and numerous journal articles on design, drawing, architecture, and colour. Several published works have become adopted texts throughout the US, Asia, and Europe. Harold has served as visiting lecturer in design at over 100 schools of art and architecture. Linton’s Portfolio Design first published in 1996 by W.W. Norton and Company, New York, is now in its fourth full-colour edition. Linton is the recipient of more than thirty citations from leading art and design schools noting his work as a prized resource. In its various iterations and editions, more than 200 colleges and universities in the United States and abroad have adopted Portfolio Design. Linton’s work on colour is also the subject of articles and interviews in the New York Times, Metropolis Magazine, Departures Magazine, and numerous journals.