From drab cubicles and cardboard curtains to game rooms and concert stages, startup offices runs the gamut from bare-bones to over-the-top-perks. But if the look doesn’t jibe with your company’s brand, you may be missing out on a valuable opportunity…
Tag: sf design writer
Entrepreneur Magazine: Refinery29 Gets A Branding Makeover
Everyone can use a makeover now and again – even a super stylish site like Refinery29. For the November issue of Entrepreneur Magazine, I talk all things design with Refinery29 founder Justin Stefano along with the brand wizards at Wolff Olins…
San Francisco Magazine: A Bonfire Fest
There are a gazillion reasons why I love Northern California. Topping the charts? Fall weather that feels like summer and the utterly romantic coastal town of Carmel-By-the-Sea. Combine the two and it’s the perfect recipe for a bonfire-on-the-beach weekend getaway. CHECK…
Communication Arts: Book Review
For the latest issue of Communication Arts (one of my favorite design magazines ever!), I had the awesome opportunity to review design editor Mason Currey’s new blog-turned-book, Daily Rituals: How Artists Work, which snapshots the daily routines and habits of over…
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…
Dwell Magazine: A Modern Desert Retreat In New Mexico
On the edge of the Sangre de Cristo foothills, Rancho Encantado is a modernist hideaway tucked within New Mexico’s Tesuque Valley. Once a decades-old dude ranch, newly reinvented as a Four Seasons, the retreat was designed to preserve and embrace its…
PRINT Magazine Article – Book Review of Vogue: The Covers
Strike a pose – specifically, a comfy reading position. As we ring in the New Year, iconic magazine Vogue invites us to look back on 120-years of style with their luxe coffee table archive, “Vogue: The Covers.” And just as crazy-excited “Sex and the…
HOW Magazine Article: Designing to Your Own Beat
If aliens from outer space came to Earth seeking to understand graphic design culture, they would no doubt discover an overabundance of well-worn earphones and speakers next to some very cool, creative work. In fact, from design studios to home…
7×7 SF Article: Archive Vintage Rentals Opens in Wine Country
Bay Area vintage-lovers rejoice: The SoCal bridal staple Archive Vintage Rentals–known for lending their well-curated, one-of-a-kind relics to weddings and events—is now available for NorCal bridal borrowing too. Read my full article on 7×7.com.
HOW Magazine Article: The Daily Taps into the Future of Design
There’s something so new and super-cool happening in the world of design–but shocker-of-shockers–it’s not happening in the webosphere. It’s exploding on the iPad. The Daily, a magazine-meets-newspaper-meets-the most wow-worthy technology, is taking design to some crazy new heights. Although you can…
7×7 Article – Save These Dates: The Bay Area’s October Bridal Events
From San Francisco to Santa Cruz, you’ll find a slew of wedding inspiration throughout the Bay Area and beyond this month. A host of events including designer trunk shows, registry parties, and creative bridal fairs will get those wedding wheels…
7×7 Article – Tilt: The Alternative Wedding Fair
If the thought of donning a puffy white dress and nibbling on hors d’oeuvres causes sudden onset freak-out, vow to usher your soon-to-married self (and better half) to the Tilt Wedding Fair on September 25. Read my full article on 7×7.com.
Print Mag Article: Design Pros Share Highlights of Brand New Conference 2011
Design enthusiasts from around the world gathered in San Francisco on September 16th for the 2nd annual Brand New Conference – the logo and identity event hatched from Bryony Gomez-Palacio’s and Armin Vit’s wildly popular Brand New blog. Eager to peek into the brand-making process by industry trailblazers…
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…
T Magazine Article: Tattly’s Designer Tattoos
Have you ever had the desire to get the word “mother” tattooed on your forearm, but were more concerned about it being properly kerned in Helvetica than about how it would make your mother totally freak? Tattly, a new e-shop, features…
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….
HOW Magazine interview with designers Chip Kidd, Paula Scher, Stefan Sagmeister, and Robynne Raye
I recently spoke with an extremely talented graphic designer who was struggling with a book cover design. She confided, “I’m starting to feel like I suck as a designer because I can’t figure out a solution to this problem.” “Oh,…
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…
Metropolis Magazine interview with Wim Crouwel
Wim Crouwel is one of those hardy souls seemingly immune to self-doubt. That’s easy enough now, with Crouwel’s place as one of graphic design’s most influential practitioners secure. But his groundbreaking work has not always been universally admired, and in…
San Francisco Chronicle: John Patrick McKenzie exhibit / They Are Full of Holy Nonsense
“Sexy people are apple pies.” “One, two, tin …” “Acne, pimp, jerk…” The unlikely grouping and categorizing of words, phrases and numbers in the new exhibition “They Are Full of Holy Nonsense” at SF’s Creativity Explored range from the whimsical to…
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…
Print Magazine: Getting Upper / Graffiti Meets Graphic Design
From the time we’re born until the day we die, the twenty-six letters of the alphabet are completely and totally unavoidable. Thus, one has to wonder—will there ever come a day when seeing our own language drives us all completely…
Dwell Magazine: A Collection A Day Book
From delightfully mismatched buttons to colorful spools of thread to vintage typewriter ribbon, a variety of small, unexpected collections can be found in charming little tins. Thanks to artist/illustrator Lisa Congdon’s A Collection A Day blog project, we can now find…
SF Station: Tobias Wong ‘Bad Boy’ Designer at SFMOMA
Sometimes art speaks for itself and other times it needs explanation and context. The latter is the case for the work of the late artist-designer Tobias Wong, who takes the banally familiar and repurposes it into irony-laden statements about the…
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…
SF Station: Next to Normal at San Francisco’s Curran Theatre
The whole world is crazy, happiness is but an illusion, life equals pain, and we’re all teetering on the brink of a psychotic break. Cue the show tunes! Next to Normal, now playing at the Curran Theatre, is just your…
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…
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: 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,…