There’s romance—and then there’s Provence in the fall where autumn hues and golden sunrays paint sprawling vineyards, rolling fields, and ancient stone villages in a beauty beyond compare. And for a très magnifique escape to explore it all, head to…
Tag: san francisco design writer
Entrepreneur Magazine: The Whitney’s Responsive Identity & Pentagram Packaging
For the October issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, I chat up Amsterdam graphic design firm Experimental Jetset and the Whitney Museum on the making of the institution’s new identity. I also had the awesome opportunity to kick-off the magazine’s first “Packaging of The Month”…
Entrepreneur Magazine: A Site That Goes Down Smooth
Super excited to share my first (of many!) design articles for Entrepreneur Magazine! It’s about D.C. creative firm Design Army’s awesome web design for Green Hat Gin. CHECK OUT MY ARTICLE BELOW! (p.s. Got a design story to share on how your…
Dwell Magazine: A Seaside Art Hotel in Los Cabos
Besides white-sand beaches and warm weather, creative geeks have a new reason to head to Los Cabos. Hotel El Ganzo is a newly opened modern design escape set on a quiet marina in Puerto Los Cabos, the less-developed neighbor to…
Featured in California Home+Design!
One of my favorite magazines to write for is California Home+Design—sharing San Francisco design obsessions from architecture, interiors, and products to emerging artists and must-see gallery openings. So I couldn’t be more stoked to have the mention below! CHECK OUT SOME OF…
Communication Arts Magazine: Design Book Reviews
For the latest issue of Communication Arts, I had the awesome opportunity to review two stellar design books dripping with creative inspiration: Saul Bass: A Life in Film and Design and Paula Scher MAPS. Check out the reviews below (click image…
PRINT Magazine Article – Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer
We all have that one person we’d love to work with — that dream creative collaborator. Well, imagine you’ve just been assigned to work with the Edward Gorey. Holy cannoli — that would be insane! And not only is it the most…
7×7 SF Article: The Bay Area’s Hottest Wedding Dresses of the Season
We reached out to the city’s choice bridal boutiques for a glimpse at their just-in wedding frocks – and what SF’s trendiest brides-to-be are clamoring for this season. The results: jaw-dropping textures and luxurious lace gowns. Swoon! Read my full article…
HOW Magazine Article: Designer’s Self-Promo Lands him TV Cameo
It’s not every day that a graphic designer makes a cameo on a hit series on a major television network. But for one surreal day this past summer, Ty Mattson of Mattson Creative swapped his designer tools for a gun, flashlight, notebook,…
Design Bureau article: 5 Designers / 5 Questions
In the November 2011 issue of Design Bureau Magazine, I continue my 5 Designers/ 5 Questions column. Dishing with some of the industry’s coolest restaurant designers, I interview Christian Helms, Karen Herold, AvroKO, and Cass Calder Smith to see what’s cookin’ in their wildly…
7×7 SF Article – Save These Dates: November’s Best Bridal Trunk Shows
You’ve scored the man, picked the date, but have nada to wear. Sounds like a wedding emergency. Address the dress problem ASAP: Fresh-off-the-runway bridal fashions land in SF this month with a slew of must-see designer trunk shows. Check out…
Print Magazine Article: Design Celebrating the First 2000 Years of Computing
As the world looks back on the outstanding innovations Steve Jobs gifted our society, a small San Francisco-based design firm knows first-hand just how far we’ve come tech-wise. Creative Directors Erik Schmitt and Julio Martínez of studio1500 have spent the last three…
T Magazine Article: Houdini Art and Magic Exhibition
When it comes to unshackling the imagination, there’s no artist like an escape artist. And Harry Houdini is getting his due with “Houdini: Art and Magic,” the first major retrospective devoted to his life and work, at San Francisco’s Contemporary…
7×7 Article – Bay Area Designer Brian Singer Turns SF’s Telephone Poles into Art for Target
From the Bay to the Golden Gate to its awe-inspiring scenery, San Francisco is famed for its stunning beauty. But when graphic designer/artist Brian Singer moved to SF in 2000, he fell head-over-heels for the city’s–telephone poles. “I found them beautiful… layers…
Print Mag Article: Deep Surface: A New Exhibition Celebrating Ornament and Pattern Design
Ornament and pattern design – love it or hate it, the style debate rages on. Whether you dig decorative flourishes or vote anti-adornment on all things design, one thing is clear – the fanciful aesthetic has developed a bad rep. Name-called everything…
Communication Arts Magazine: A Retail Shop That Sells – Digital Typefaces?
Can the process of buying digital typefaces be any less inspired? There’s just nothing inherently exciting, creative, or cool about it. You purchase, download, and install. Whoop-de-do. Sure, online font shops are an undeniably fantastic resource for designers, but for…
Design Bureau article: 5 Designers / 5 Questions
In the September/October 2011 issue of Design Bureau Magazine, I continue my 5 Designers/ 5 Questions column tapping the creative minds of the judging panel for Chicago’s Archive11 student typography event. Interviewing the industry’s coolest designers–Stefan Bucher, James Goggin, Robert Petrick, Paul…
Print Mag Article: How to Self-Publish a Typography Book Without Losing Your Letters
If you ask any graphic design student at San Francisco’s Academy of Art University to name his/her most-faved teachers, Typography 2 instructor Carolina de Bartolo will no doubt pop up in the mix. In fact, it was with her students’ encouragement (and…
Print Mag Article: The Greatest Graphic Design Show on Earth
Pack up your pixels and don’t forget your fishing pole – we’re headed to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. This October 22nd, Minneapolis’ Walker Art Center is presenting Graphic Design: Now in Production, one of the largest graphic design exhibitions in the…
T Magazine Article: Athletic Typography | Running Alphabet
The Spanish graphic designer Joan Pons Moll is creating a new typeface, but unlike most typographers, he’s doing so with his feet rather than a computer, and he’s slightly out of breath. Taking sneakers to pavement, Pons is planning to run…
Print Magazine Article: Jennifer Sterling is Back!
Thankfully, graphic designers are a bit too nerdy for the paparazzi. But had the snooping press hounds any clue into the talent’s of our industry’s rockstar creatives – Jennifer Sterling surely would have been one of their buzz-worthy targets when she…
Design Bureau Magazine: 5 Designers, 5 Questions
If you’re not familiar with Design Bureau Magazine, get to know them ASAP. Their fresh, edgy editorial spanning all fields of design from graphic to interior to fashion is deliriously inspiring. Plus, the design of the magazine itself rocks. In…
California Home+Design: Cool Finds – Minimal in Hayes Valley
Minimal boutique in San Francisco’s Hayes Valley is like a candy store for the modern design-obsessed. (Think: clean, clever, contemporary, and ultra-functional). The shop is chock full of delicious home décor designs–and you seriously want one of everything for your abode….
Azure Magazine article on design firm Supermachine
The architects at Supermachine, a small, inventive Thai firm, sometimes refer to themselves as “guerrilla architects.” Says principal Pitupong “Jack” Chaowakul, “We love to play around, finding new ideas that suit our projects and testing stuff out.” They also love…
San Francisco Chronicle: American Iconomics / Art exhibit by James Charles and Akira Beard
Money and celebrity. Like it or not, America has a madcap obsession with both. In “American Iconomics,” at the Shooting Gallery artists James Charles and Akira Beard explore our society’s fixation with and valuing of pop culture icons. But the means…
Print Magazine: Posters of Fortune / Typography Poster Show
Cracking open a fortune cookie at the end of a Chinese meal and seeing if/how the inside message personally relates to our individual lives is all part of the fun and good times. But the fact is, we all know…
California Home+Design: THE SCOOP – SF’S CIAO BELLA GELATERIA GETS A TASTY REDESIGN
Gelato enthusiasts be advised: Although the colorful new tiles in SF’s Ciao Bella shop are a dead-on match to their scoop-worthy flavors – the walls are not meant for licking. With a sweet new revamp, you’ll need all the willpower you can…
Print Magazine: Typography is HERE
“Widows and orphans give us sleepless nights.” In any other sense, that phrase might conjure up images of black spiders or a certain little redhead named Annie. But when you realize the words (about those annoyingly short words or lines at…
Dwell Magazine: Matthew Carter Unveils New Typeface in San Francisco
Matthew Carter has a letter for web designers, typography geeks, and design buffs everywhere. Actually, he has a whole brand spankin’ new alphabet. On February 2nd, the iconic type designer unveiled his newest commercial typeface, Carter Sans, at the Book…
SFWeekly: Berkeley Breathed’s “From Bloom County to Mars”
I’m now a contributing writer for SF Weekly (the award-winning Village Voice of the West) and couldn’t be more excited! The first thing I write about? Cartoons, of course! More specifically, from February 16th-June 19th the Cartoon Art Museum will…
Dwell Magazine: Crossing the Line / A Space by Tanya Aguiñiga
I recently had the amazing opportunity to interview furniture designer/textile-maven Tanya Aguiñiga about her new exhibition at L.A.’s Craft and Folk Art Museum for Dwell.com. Inspired by her recent trip to the indigenous region of Chiapas, Mexico where she learned the…
San Francisco February Arts Highlights
Love it or hate it, it’s the month of love, and you’ve got a hot date with the arts this February. Check out the hottest events in San Francisco including masterful paper fashions at the Legion of Honor, the first-ever…
Print Magazine: Phonography and Why Graphic Designer Josh Higgins Rocks!
As a contributing writer for Print Magazine’s awesome design blog, Imprint, I recently had the fantastic opportunity to interview noted graphic designer and silkscreen artist, Josh Higgins. Josh conceived the unique idea for the phone-based photography exhibition, Phonography, featuring renowned creatives such…
SF STATION: Clue at the Boxcar Theatre in San Francisco
If fear of heights, long periods of darkness, and small enclosed spaces sends you into a panic, it’s all part of the adventure at Boxcar Theatre’s newest play, Clue. Based on the cult classic whodunit board game-turned-movie, this highly imaginative but…
Dwell Magazine: Suprasensorial Experiments in Light, Color, and Space
What exactly does it mean to fully immerse oneself in art? This month I had the fantastic opportunity to interview Senior Curator of L.A.’s Museum of Contemporary Art, Alma Ruiz, for Dwell.com. In my article, we discuss MOCA’s newest exhibition,…
FastCompany: The BIG Logo Controversy
Don’t mess with college football fans, their beer, their nachos or their…graphic design? There’s been big controversy buzzing on the web since Pentagram unveiled the redesign of the new Big Ten logo. To put it lightly, it was far from…
SF Station: Shrek The Musical at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre
If it’s possible for a great pair of legs to steal a show, then Lord Farquaad’s short, floppy puppet gams are the hilarious highlight of DreamWorks’ screen-to-stage adaption, Shrek the Musical, based on the 2001 animated film. At the Orpheum Theatre…
SF Station: How Wine Became Modern at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Let’s face it, the Bay Area is a tad wine obsessed. But with neighboring Napa and Sonoma Valleys producing some of the best wines in the world, who can blame us? The question is: What’s everyone else’s excuse? From wine…
SF Station: Curious George Saves the Day: The Art of Margret & H.A. Rey at San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum
When walking through the Curious George Saves the Day exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, don’t be surprised if you find yourself delightfully squealing, “Wow, I remember that!” coupled with lots of, “Wow, I never knew that!” exclamations. The exhibit…
SF Station: PIXAR 25 Years of Animation
After a worldwide tour that started in 2005 at New York’s MoMA, PIXAR: 25 Years of Animation returned home. This is a newly enhanced presentation from the original MoMA exhibit that includes all of the original art plus new additions…
HowDesign Magazine: The S-word + Graphic Design
I recently helped kick-off a new monthly online series for HOW Magazine which highlights an outstanding design firm or freelance design business creating amazing work. In my article, I profile the stellar Seattle-based graphic design studio, Turnstyle. We discuss their philosophy,…