Reckoning with our responsibility not just to our clients but to everyone and to the planet. — What is “good” design and who decides what it looks like? Perhaps the issue is in the wording of the question itself; “looks like”—is what makes a design good based only on its appearance? The answer is obviously that aesthetics alone do not determine the quality of a design. But…

Focusing on meaningful change rather than big impacts — Being a designer has never been easy; not if you take the responsibility seriously anyway. But being a designer — let’s face it, just being a person — on a planet that is undergoing a climate crisis is even harder. A designer’s job can be complicated and stressful even without…

5 reasons that climate change needs to be a part of the design process. — Not every job seems like it would be a good fit in which to either be a contributor to global climate change or one that would be good at addressing or tackling those changes. Being a designer though means being able to be both options. Knowing that, we designers should…

I’m working on a book about graphic design activism and its intersection with the movement for climate justice. This below is a condensed version of what is shaping up to be the book’s introduction. The thing is, I used to want to design typography. I had goals to create something…

When is the last time you really got something out of your AIGA membership? Like, really? You pay how much for membership and what, you go to a monthly mixer, and then what? Well, I suppose that depends on your level of success outside of AIGA and your level of…

I’ve written before about how the importance of graphic design—and commercial art as a whole—requires a renewed set of ethical standards for the industry but I want to write now about the importance of the value of graphic design, or to be more exact, how important it is that graphic…

Where the flavor is The commercial begins with a wide shot of the horizon and a lilting, triumphant musical soundtrack. A narrator speaks in a clear, steady voice: “Rolling clouds, wide-open spaces…” and as he speaks, we see a picturesque expanse of golden grains and purple mountains in the distance; nature untamed by human…

When is the last time that you considered the importance of commercial art? Was it when Steve Jobs and Jony Ive took the stage together to tell you that the iPhone, the iPad, the iMac, and iCloud were going to change everything? When Mad Men had a death grip on…