Designer Things

I’ve spent more hours than I care to admit staring at waiting rooms. Not because I wanted to—though maybe that’s partly true—but because I

I used to think design was just about making things look pretty. Then I spent three years interviewing architects, urban planners, and community organizers

I used to think pottery was just about clay and kilns. Turns out, the geometric patterns etched into Pueblo pottery between roughly 900 and 1300 CE weren’

I used to think newspaper layouts were just about fitting words into rectangles. Turns out, the evolution of newspaper design is actually this weird dance

I used to think transmodernism was just another art-world buzzword—one of those terms that sounds profound in a gallery brochure but means nothing when

I used to think decorative lettering was just about making letters pretty. Then I spent three weeks in a Prague archive looking at Art Nouveau posters

I used to think patterns were just shapes repeating until they looked nice. Then I spent three weeks in Teotitlán del Valle, a village about 40 minutes

I used to think art history moved in straight lines—minimalism killed expressionism, conceptual art murdered painting, and that was that. Turns out the story’

I used to think weaving was just about making blankets. Then I spent three weeks in the Navajo Nation watching weavers work, and honestly, the whole experience

Neo Geo digital art didn’t invent geometric abstraction—it just made it feel urgent again. I used to think geometric abstraction was this pristine