Katherine and Michael McCoy were co-chairs of the design department at Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1971 – 1994. The department taught both 2D and 3D design, with Katherine teaching 2D and Michael teaching 3D. They ran the department in a way that was occasionally labeled controversial, with no deadlines or assignments and only required a final thesis show of their students. The McCoys often encouraged radical thinking and it was not unheard of for them to collaborate with students on their projects. Michael McCoy was born on September 16, 1944 and received his BA from Michigan State University in industrial design in 1966, following it with an MA in industrial design form Wayne State University in 1968. He married Katherine in 1967. In 1975 he co-authored Problem Solving in the Man-Made Environment. He worked on the San Francisco Mass Transit Vehicle and designed high-tech furniture systems for Knoll International, Inc. He won over 100 national and international design awards and served on the board of editors for Industrial Design Magazine. Katherine McCoy was born Katherine Braden on October 12, 1945 and received her Magna Cum Laude BA in industrial design from Michigan State University in 1967. She worked with Unimark, Chrysler Corp. and Omnigraphics before founding McCoy & McCoy with her husband Michael in 1972. During her tenure as co-chair of the CAA, she was on the board of editors for Industrial Design Magazine, and was the executive vice president of the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA). She was also a member of Alliance Graphique Internationale and the president of the American Center of Design. In 1983, she was elected to a 2-year term as the president of the IDSA, not only the first woman but the youngest person to do so.

She has received various awards from the AIGA, the Society of Typographic Arts 100 Show and the IDSA Education Award, amongst others. After her Cranbrook tenure, she was a visiting distinguished professor of the Royal College of Art in London, and a senior lecturer at Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design in Chicago from 1995 – 2000. In 2005 she was a consulting professor at Kansas City Art Institute and she currently consults as a continuing partner at McCoy & McCoy. Together the McCoys created McCoy & McCoy and designed for Knoll International, Philips, Unisys and designed the signage for the Pontiac Silverdome. Besides co-chairing the CAA, they both worked on Cranbrook Design: The New Discourse in 1990 and in 1994 were awarded the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design. McCoy & McCoy has won more than 150 design awards.