John Loring is design director emeritus of Tiffany & Co., where he was design director from 1979 to 2009. He is the author of numerous books about Tiffany's and art in general and a longtime contributor to Architectural Digest. Prior to joining Tiffany in 1979 as design director, Loring was the New York bureau chief of Architectural Digest, as well as being one of the magazine's principal editorial contributors. He was also a professor of art at the graduate school of the University of California. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English literature from Yale University in 1960. After graduating, he continued his studies for four more years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Since 1964, his prints and paintings have been exhibited in Europe and the United States.