Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

So many amaz­ing artists, design­ers and cre­ative peo­ple will be lead­ing the work­shops at Design Ranch next week. In antic­i­pa­tion of my arrival in Texas, let’s take a look at the incred­i­bly tal­ented peo­ple who we’ll also be learn­ing from.

Ellen Lupton

Ellen Lupton is Senior Curator of Contemporary Design at the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York City. Recent projects include Graphic Design — Now in Production, a tour­ing exhi­bi­tion co-organized by Cooper-Hewitt and Walker Art Center. Lupton is direc­tor of the Graphic Design MFA Program at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), where she has authored numer­ous books on design processes, includ­ing Thinking with Type, Graphic Design Thinking, and Graphic Design: The New Basics.

Peter Buchanan-Smith

Peter Buchanan-Smith is a New York – based designer, author, and entre­pre­neur whose career has included art direc­tion of the New York Times; cre­ative direc­tion for Paper mag­a­zine; and work for fash­ion icon Isaac Mizrahi, musi­cal leg­ends David Byrne, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, and the band Wilco. He is the author of sev­eral books, includ­ing The Wilco Book, and he has col­lab­o­rated on many oth­ers, includ­ing Strunk and White’s clas­sic The Elements of Style with illus­tra­tor Maira Kalman. His first tome, Speck: A Curious Collection of Uncommon Things explores the fas­ci­nat­ing lives of ordi­nary peo­ple and com­mon­place objects. This con­nec­tion between peo­ple and objects is also at the heart of Buchanan-Smith’s ven­ture, Best Made Co., a pur­veyor of finely crafted tools and an entrée into the sym­bolic world they conjure.

Tara McPherson

Tara McPherson is an artist based out of New York City. Creating art about peo­ple and their odd ways, her char­ac­ters seem to exude an ide­al­ized inno­cence with a glimpse of hard earned wis­dom in their eyes. Recalling myths and leg­ends, issues from child­hood and good old life expe­ri­ence, she cre­ates images that are thought pro­vok­ing and seduc­tive. People and their rela­tion­ships are a cen­tral theme through­out her work.

Dana Tanamachi

Dana Tanamachi is a graphic designer and cus­tom chalk let­terer who hails from the Lone Star State and cur­rently resides in Brooklyn, New York.

After grad­u­at­ing in 2007 with a BFA in Communication Design from The University of North Texas, Dana moved to New York City to design Broadway show posters at Spotco — a leader in arts and live enter­tain­ment brand­ing. In early 2010, she took a job work­ing under Louise Fili at Louise Fili Ltd, spe­cial­iz­ing in the design of restau­rants and food packaging.

Dirk Fowler

Dirk Fowler is the poster-making half of f2design, a graphic design stu­dio he oper­ates with his wife, Carol, in sunny Lubbock, Texas. His unusu­ally sim­ple con­cert poster designs are printed using antique let­ter­press equip­ment. Most of the images are hand-cut and com­bined with vin­tage wood and metal type, giv­ing each print a unique and tac­tile qual­ity. His con­cert posters have appeared in numer­ous books and major design pub­li­ca­tions, as well as gal­leries and poster exhibits around the world. When he isn’t print­ing or hang­ing out with his kids, he’s prob­a­bly at his other gig, teach­ing at Texas Tech University. His clients include Wilco, The New York Dolls, Columbia Records, Wired and Billboard Magazine. 

Anna Bond

Anna Bond is an illus­tra­tor and designer orig­i­nally from the out­skirts of New York (Jersey) and cur­rently based in Winter Park, Florida. Together with her hus­band, Nathan, she founded the sta­tionery and gift brand Rifle Paper Co. In the company’s three years, it has quickly risen to the top of the indus­try and is now car­ried in over 2,000 stores in over 30 coun­tries around the world. Anna’s illus­tra­tions are at the heart of Rifle’s prod­ucts and have become known for their col­or­ful palette and nos­tal­gic qual­ity. Her work has been fea­tured in InStyle, Martha Stewart Living, The New York Times, and Elle Décor, and she has col­lab­o­rated on exclu­sive prod­ucts for com­pa­nies such as Anthropologie and Chronicle Books.

I’ll be shar­ing the sec­ond half of our line-up tomor­row. I can’t wait to share some first-hand expe­ri­ence with you next week!