Does every business benefit from design? Think of your favorite hole-in-the-wall BBQ joint, or the local bakery down the block. Each time you go there, do you find yourself mentally re-designing their logo? Have you decided that the one thing keeping your favorite Thai food place from becoming a national chain is a new identity system and a modest media buy? (more…)

For my first guest post, I thought I would indulge myself with a topic that’s been haunting me for the last month or so – the nature of design and what I feel is its inherent (and necessary) idealism.

I’m sitting in an airport, having just dropped off my son, Harry, at Wesleyan University, where he’s about to start his first year of college. I can’t help but be mindful of beginnings and endings and
change. (more…)

Renee Rupcich is the assistant art director of Men’s Vogue. Though her career has focused on graphic design and publishing (she was also senior designer at fashion/design magazine Surface), she also studied photography and worked as an assistant in photography studios in San Francisco. Lately Renee has cultivated an interest in handcrafts and knitting as well as in socially and environmentally responsible design, and she contributes to the online community DESIGN 21: Social Design Network. (more…)