PinnedThrowing PencilsNote: this story may also be found on Scratching the Surface. Author’s Note: I love teaching design criticism. This semester is my seventh teaching students at The City College of New York to read, write, and think critically about the practice, culture, and impact of design. Our classroom discussions wrestle…Short Story11 min readShort Story11 min read
Published inUX Collective·May 15, 2020The role of letterforms in reading instructionNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. My first-grade reading tutor gave the best stickers. Puffy, smelly, sparkly — she even had a few that were fuzzy. At that age I was a tornado of excitement. The last thing I wanted to do was settle down and…Typography10 min readTypography10 min read
Published inThe Startup·Apr 10, 2020Reaching for Resilience in the Time of Covid-19My design career began during a recession — here’s what I learned Note: this essay may also be found on AIGA’s Eye On Design. A month ago, the brilliant designer Bobby C. Martin spoke to my typography students at Fordham University about his storied career. Everyone oohed and aahed. After class, my students poured back out into the crowded city. Bobby and…Design5 min readDesign5 min read
Jul 10, 2019Why it Matters to Me if Designers Read and WriteNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. I read the following statement during a five-minute spotlight slot at this year’s Typographics conference in New York City. This Fall I’ll be teaching a design theory and media studies course at City College. Right now I’m really excited about…Reading4 min readReading4 min read
Published inThe Startup·May 23, 2019The Tension Between Graphic and Type DesignNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. In the early days of the United States, roughly 120 years before the term “graphic designer” was coined, heated tensions between the typeface and publishing industries reached a boiling point. In 1802, 26 short years after John Dunlap produced the…Typography8 min readTypography8 min read
Apr 29, 2019Should Book Publishing Leave New York City?Note: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. A short walk from the building where I design books for a living is Centre Market Place, a one-block street in Manhattan where my family lived for three generations. My great-grandfather started out shining shoes for his father, who was…Publishing7 min readPublishing7 min read
Apr 12, 2019Undesigning Our IdentityNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. For the first eleven years of my career I worked under the same creative director in the same design department with largely the same group of designers, editors, and marketers, most of whom had worked together for ten years before…Design6 min readDesign6 min read
Mar 1, 2019The Fear on Both Sides of a Design PitchNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. Founded in 1973 and with roughly 17,000 current members, the Park Slope Food Coop is one of the oldest and largest food coops in the United States. Unlike with many other food coops, buying your way out of working is…Design6 min readDesign6 min read
Nov 5, 2018Voting ≠ HopingNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. In the summer of 2010 I took Milton Glaser’s storied summer intensive. It was 80 hours of lectures and assignments — which Milton had refined for over 30 years — peppered with luminary speakers. All of it was squeezed into…Voting5 min readVoting5 min read
Jun 1, 2018Questioning Graphic Design’s EthicalityNote: this essay may also be found on Design Observer. Once a year, my family would drive seven hours for a weeklong glimpse of the sea. My mother’s eyes twinkled as she solved the puzzle of squeezing more than could possibly fit into our weary station wagon. Channeling her father…Design13 min readDesign13 min read
