About

I’ve been doing this for a minute, and I’ve got some thoughts about it.

I started working in graphic design before I finished high school. While I studied journalism and art, while I worked in marketing and education, behind it all I was always designing, always tinkering, always improving. And along the way, I kept asking, “What is this good for? Who does it help?” When I entered civil service as a graphic designer, it felt very much like coming home: here was, at long last, a place I could use my skills in service of my community.

Public service design is different from other kinds of graphic design: more than any other field, it prioritizes universality and economy. Universality, because we serve everyone, not just a client base or desirable market demographic; and economy, because as stewards of the public trust we must make wise use of the investment made in our work. If we do our work well, it will be invisible. Our only and greatest reward will be the knowledge we’ve made life better for the people and communities we love.