Tagged: Prose
42 posts
New set
A new apartment in North Oakland, and a visual and spiritual reset.
When I die…
On purpose, impact, and helping others discover their own why.
I Am Here.
On resistance, community, and an election night in November 2025.
First Month back in Oakland
Returning to the Bay Area after the pandemic years in Philadelphia.
Sunny Sunday morning, French press with cardamom pod, almond horn
On mothers, almond horns, and the ritual of grinding coffee with a cardamom pod.
Tradition(s)
On attending Saturday morning services with family, and the Jewish traditions worth keeping.
Paragraphernalia, Volume 3
Music edition of the series
Holzeresque
On making Jenny Holzer-inspired business-card life tips at an instant print shop in 1990s Boston.
Under Over: 2019 edition
A year-end reflection on independence, networks, and what I'm done tolerating.
A Christmas Eve Three
Napkins, brand smiles, and a handwritten note found in an old record sleeve.
Starting off
Four new things for the year ahead: a first full semester teaching at CCA, quarterly writing retreats, office hours, and independent workshops.
Paragraphernalia, Volume 2
Travel, type, art, and words.
Paragraphernalia, Volume 1
The first in a series of life vignettes.
What Actually Works
On Milton Glaser's maxim and naming a podcast in one tweet.
Twitter ALC kits
Designed riding kits for the Twitter Open AIDS LifeCycle team, who raised $45,000.
Ribbon Bed v1
The original build log for the Ribbon Bed -- sketch, schematic, mold, and finished frame.
Place, Product, and People: My take on the IBM Bluemix Garage
Nine months inside IBM's Bluemix Garage -- on place, product, people, and IBM Design Thinking.
Time with family
On teaching Mom what a Tweet is, and a five-hour drive with Dad from New York to DC.
Aww & awe
On returning a 16-year-old favor, and an unexpected donation to an AIDS LifeCycle ride.
Live from Studio D, it's my first Creative Live class!
Teaching my first CreativeLive class, Building a Brand Book, to 2500 live-streamed students.
Thoughts last night and this morning after meeting Elle Luna and being in a room full of empowered attentive people
Seven reflections after a Women Catalysts event with Elle Luna.
Yes I Understand and Wish to Continue
Designing the book cover for James Schiller's poetry collection, with cover art by Matt Underwood and typography by Jesse Ragan.
Vision + traction = scale
The fourth Designtrepreneurs panel, 150+ attendees at WeWork Soma during SF Design Week.
Teaching Visual Design at General Assembly
A two-day Visual Design workshop for nearly 60 students at GA San Francisco, culminating in a same-day poster campaign about the California drought.
Print at 75
One of 75 designers commissioned by Debbie Millman for Print Magazine's 75th anniversary, made in one hour from found materials.
Beyond words.
On attending Sensorium, a dance evening curated by James Buckhouse, and what moved beyond words.
Where we speak from
A short reflection on speaking from the heart.
The week in gay
Hosting Designtrepreneurs in New York, Tim Cook coming out, and launching Startnership.
On iOS 7
What iOS 7 got right, and a wish list for what's next.
Visual Parallel
A visual parallel between Thaana script and Woodstock's language.
Love and Family
On surprising a friend at his going-away party in Baltimore, and witnessing the family a community bar can become.
Notes on Cliff
Originally published in the first issue of Hello Mr. -- a memoir of a chat-room meeting arranged as a teenager in 1986, and the moment of recognizing something was wrong.
My time with Maurice
Maurice Sendak has died, and I am pondering temporality. On the summer of 1995, when I hand-lettered his Sendak in Philadelphia poster and got to know him.
Observation
A one-line observation.
On clipboards & leadership.
On starting a childhood club with clipboards and assignments, and where those instincts led.
A lifetime of things.
A prescient old journal entry, found while unpacking books and records.
(Not so) funny
On making room for fun-lovingness after years of conveying seriousness.
My first three lessons as a Jeep Wrangler owner.
Three lessons from the first week in a friend's '97 Wrangler.
Pinball wizard 3.0
A night at Barcade in Jersey City, and generational thoughts on arcade games vs. modern controllers.
What's (a) meta (for)
Are you looking at the road, or the windshield?
The original... Three. Word. Tagline.
On the trend of three-word taglines, and the two sets we were taught as kids.
Liking is the new lugging
On curating physical possessions before a first home purchase, and the freedom of digital ones.