MillerKnoll: Verbal Brand Expression

When titans of design Herman Miller and Knoll joined forces as MillerKnoll, what they created is a collective of the world’s leading design companies. When I joined forces with 2x4, what we created was a distinct verbal identity and expression for this visionary new brand.

In partnership with 2x4, I helped define MillerKnoll’s core brand language, key messages, voice principles and tactics, content strategy, and communications assets, including a brand narrative and video scripts for its showrooms.

Arper: 2022 Communications Concept, "The Project of Living"

Italian furniture manufacturer Arper needed a theme to ground its 2022 brand communications. At a moment when the world has been turned upside down and the boundaries between work and home aren’t just blurred, but completely collapsed, how do we choose to live? The Project of Living celebrates the ongoing spatial exploration we all undertake each day as we make sense of what it means to live now. Arper’s soft, versatile, and modular furnishings help us adapt, invent, and reinvent spaces that are sustainable, useful, and beautiful.

I wrote the brand manifesto on The Project of Living and defined key messages addressing sustainability, a new roster of designers/products, and Arper's foray into home. I conceived of thematic activations for Salone del Mobile and brand showrooms, editorial and social content, and in-person events. I also developed content for Arper's News publication and product catalog, including interviews with its designers, and product copy that touches on the lyrical and the technical.

The campaign was activated across Arper’s brand touchpoints from web to showrooms, and from social to events like Salone del Mobile.

Designers were interviewed about how they embark on the project of living through their spaces and practices.

For Arper’s News Catalog, I interviewed the collection’s designers about how their products, practice, and lifestyle creates new possibilities for how to live.

Product copy informed by the communications theme ranges from the lyrical to the technical.

DRAMA publication: Concept and content development

This career-defining monograph (Phaidon, 2021) presents the work of architect, designer, and stage designer David Rockwell through the lens of his lifelong passion for theater.

Working with David, visionary designer Bruce Mau, and a team of creative collaborators, I helped conceive the book’s premise and format, and define its theater-inflected themes, illustrated by key projects from Rockwell Group’s 35 year history, as well as a range of influential works from theater, architecture and other creative fields.

DRAMA captures Rockwell’s uniquely human-centric approach to design, and offers a new framework and language through which to create and experience the built environment.

Alive Ventures: Messaging and Content Strategy, Copywriting

Design for older people sucks! Alive Ventures incubates companies that help older adults love, work, and live better. My charge was to write and edit copy for the Alive Ventures launch site that clearly communicates the company's mission and preserves the unique voice of its co-founders, design entrepreneurs Ayse Birsel and John Zaplonski. I also developed a script for an experiential activation planned for SXSW 2020.

Working in Concert: Campaign Strategy, Messaging, Naming for the campaign to reimagine David Geffen Hall

In collaboration with design studio 2x4, I developed the strategy, messaging, and naming for Working in Concert, the $500 million dollar joint fundraising effort by Lincoln Center and the New York Philharmonic to reimagine David Geffen Hall from the inside out.

Knoll: Interactive Archive

I partnered with modern design icon Knoll to develop The Archive, an interactive timeline of the company’s history. I curated, researched, and wrote new timeline entries spanning over 100 years of design history, and uncovered the many personal and professional connections linking the design luminaries and institutions that shaped Knoll's history. The new Archive also incorporates the history of KnollTextiles, and spotlights the many contributions of women designers. Data visualization produced in conjunction with Schema Design.

Please note the Archive is best experienced on a desktop or tablet.

Entries can be explored in three views: as a chronological timeline, in a regular grid, or as a constellation that shows the many personal and professional connections linking Knoll with many interwar and postwar design luminaries. The 400+ entries can also be sorted by themes and tags, and a particular entry can be set as a filter to view related content.

Pantone: Editorial and Content Strategy, Copywriting and Editing

I worked with legendary color standards and trend forecasting company Pantone to elevate their brand’s editorial offering and develop a more consistent brand voice. I wrote and edited content from technical articles on color spaces, to breezy blog posts, to client case studies, and product detail pages that increased conversion rates by double digits.

The Museum of Modern Art: Curatorial Projects

I've organized and assisted with over a dozen architecture and design exhibitions at MoMA, including How Should We Live? Propositions for the Modern Interior, Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye, Designing Modern Women 1890–1980, Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980, From the Collection: 1960–1969, and Massimo Vignelli: The Subway and the City.  

During my time at MoMA, I also facilitated the acquisition of numerous iconic works for the collection, including a 1957 Fender Stratocaster, a student bedroom suite designed by Charlotte Perriand, and a large scale recent work by Sheila Hicks.

How Should We Live?

From the Collection: 1960–1969

Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye

Designing Modern Women 1890-1980

Hand Signals: Digits, Fists, and Talons

Latin America in Construction: 1950–1980

Tri-Lox: Strategy, Messaging, Copywriting, Naming, Research

This Brooklyn design-build studio is expanding into new markets and sought my help with a brand refresh and copy for its new site. Founded in 2009 by three designers with a passion for sustainability, Tri-Lox had grown from a custom fabrication workshop into a vertically-integrated millworks producing standardized, reclaimed wood products scaled for residential developers and retail rollout. I developed a strategy and messaging program that speaks to an intimate, materials-driven design process, while showcasing a capability for sustainable design at volume. Featured project narratives exemplify Tri-Lox's holistic approach to design. Product descriptions reveal the authentic origin stories that enrich each collection, material, and finish.

This extensive project included stakeholder interviews, a competitor audit, development of a brand strategy and brand voice guidelines, comprehensive copywriting, and product naming.

Prada: Rong Zhai Exhibition and Publication

I worked with design consultancy 2x4 to develop an experiential exhibition and publication that celebrated the opening of Prada Rong Zhai, a historic western-style mansion in Shanghai. Prada undertook a meticulous, four-year restoration of this opulent, early 20th-century residence, and in 2017 the site was relaunched as a public cultural venue and home base for the brand's operations in China.

The exhibition took the form of an annotated interior, with text and graphic panels calling out notable decorative details and unique materials, and sharing the stories of their restoration. Elsewhere, material samples original to the house, an architectural model, and video narratives documented the history and craftsmanship that suffuses the residence. Prada Rong Zhai is the storied fashion brand's latest investigation into the role of design in culture. Also on view were architectural models and materials illustrating Prada's ongoing exploration of historic and contemporary architecture.

Sweetflag: Strategy, Messaging, Naming, Copy

Sweetflag is an online retailer with a distinctly feminine ethos, specializing in products for a 'lifted lifestyle.' I helped position Sweetflag within the burgeoning market of #girlswhosmoke by identifying their core values, key messaging, and cultivating a friendly, relaxed vibe in marketing communications and select product copy.

Site design by Jodie. Photography by Alyssa Robb. Creative Direction by Lydia Okrent.

"When you wanna hit the high note, toot on this tiny saxophone-shaped pipe."

"Appreciate time in the abstract with the poetic Bubble Glass. This whimsical "hour" glass will ease your anxiety as you watch minutes melt away into a cascade of bubbles."

Uniqlo: Curating, Product Development, Writing

From 2014–2017, I worked with Uniqlo to develop its SPRZNY line, apparel and accessories inspired by MoMA's unparalleled collection of modern and contemporary art, sold at Uniqlo stores worldwide. I curated a dynamic range of MoMA artists and artworks for Uniqlo's designers to riff on, approved all final apparel designs, and wrote product and promotional copy. 

My SPRZ collections highlighting masters of graphic design at MoMA include Experimental Jet Set, Paula Scher, and Massimo Vignelli.

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T-shirts inspired by Vignelli's iconic designs for the New York City subway.

T-shirt inspired by Dutch masters of minimalism, Experimental Jetset

T-shirt inspired by Paula Scher's trademark typographic sensibility.

S9 Architecture: Messaging Strategy, Copywriting, Research

S9 Architecture is a new, New York-based practice with a host of high profile projects already under its belt–including The New York Wheel and Industry City.

I work with S9 Architecture to establish the firm's distinct point of view within the industry by sharing the stories behind its design projects. Short narratives place the projects within a larger urban context and highlight materials, inspiration, process and impact.

The New York Wheel, Staten Island

Dock 72 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard

Industry City, Sunset Park, Brooklyn

MoMA Design Store: E-commerce Messaging Strategy

I worked with the Museum of Modern Art's Design Store to surface and clarify its unique perspective on design, and to help express what sets its product offering apart from other retailers. 

Together, we also developed a set of criteria that buyers for MoMA's Design Store can measure every potential new product against. This filtration protocol ensures a diverse, high-quality product selection that is informed by MoMA's 80+ years of design scholarship and advocacy.

The Mill: Copywriting, Editing

The Mill–the creative content studio for the motion graphics industry–was undergoing a brand refresh, and with it came the opportunity to re-position its chief asset: the talent pool. This diverse staff of artists, number crunchers, producers, and technical wizards are the elves that keep The Mill churning out great content, in offices all over the globe. 

Working with my compadre Kyle, the team over at Kylebc, I established an internal bio format and guidelines that allowed staff to narrativize their skills and experience. The guidelines also sought to establish consistency in tone, length, and format for employees regardless of whether they were in creative or client services, production, or finance.

Gensler: Brand Strategy, Retail Design, and Marketing

I fell in love with brand strategy and retail design while working at leading global design firm Gensler. I worked within a boutique brand design studio and collaborated with creatives on a range of projects, from retail concept and rollout, to soup-to-nuts brand design. Key clients included Apple, Gap, Genentech, PacSun, Allsteel, REI, CityCenter, and others.

I generated strategic project proposals and presentations that leveraged Gensler’s expertise to win new retail and brand design projects. I also led an initiative to recast POV and marketing copy after an internal rebrand and managed a library of projects and marketing collateral. My verbal savvy was tapped for naming exercises for a new PacSun retail concept.