I recently had the honor of speaking about sustainable design at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point NowHere Conference. While enjoying the company of some great up-and-coming designers, several of them asked me to recap my talk for those who were unable make it to the presentation. So for anyone interested, behold the Modern Species’ 7 Principles for Sustainable Design Thinking. Read

This January was a big food month for me thanks to my attendance at the Winter Fancy Food Show and the Sustainable Foods Summit in San Francisco. While many attend these shows to find the newest trends in food, we go to these trade shows to see how design can benefit the industry. Here's what we found.  Read

The biggest problem with the Cradle to Cradle model of design is that it requires considering factors that are so often outside of your control. Things like different recycling systems and predictably unpredictable customers are enough to make a sustainable designer throw their hands up and start printing everything in metallic ink. Solution? Focus on what you can control. Read

When Toyota first rolled out the Prius, my reaction was the same as many others; Wow, that’s an ugly car! I assumed this hybrid metal snot rocket would see poor sales until the makers redesigned the car to be less space-pod-esque. Ten years and over 1 million sales later, I have come to the sad conclusion that the eco-movement has popularized ugly design. This is my plea for it to stop. Read

When starting a new company or rebranding an old one it's important to budget for design beyond the initial branding project for those unexpected extras. While it may seem that design beyond the initial branding is 'that thing you'll do when you start to make money', most clients find that it quickly becomes an immediate necessity. This finding usually comes about upon the institution of a marketing plan. Read