What's at the heart of your design?
Our memories, aspirations, and everyday experiences inform the things we make. Every design begins with a story.
What drives your design practice?
I focus on design-driven ideas through client projects, self-initiated products, and explorations seeking partners.
How do you stay innovative?
I maintain a balance between commercial work, explorations, and teaching. This ecosystem fuels new ideas and inspires others on how design can make our built environment a better place.
What's your current role?
Since 2002, I've co-led seven02, a design studio, with my wife and design partner in life. I also teach design history, interaction design, and business of design at California State University, Monterey Bay.
What's shaped your design perspective?
My journey includes formative experiences at Cranbrook Academy of Art (Mike and Kathy McCoy era), IDEO, frogdesign, Philips, BMW Designworks, and Henry Dreyfuss Associates. I'm also an alumnus of the Philadelphia College of Art.
How did living and working in The Netherlands inform your work?
Working at Philips in Europe right after my experimental time at Cranbrook was a dream. I was able to translate new ideas into concepts and production designs on a global scale. Teaching at what is now Design Academy Eindhoven was also an enlightening experience that deepened my love for clean, modern design.
Where can your work be seen?
My work is part of the permanent collection at the Cranbrook Art Museum and has been shown and sold at the MoMA. More important is seeing my designs in people’s hands, minds, and hearts.
What defines great design to you?
Great design is timeless, beautifully simple, and has a story - a raison d'être.
Hands-on Design Process
I love making quick mock-ups in foam core or paper to establish a sense of scale to the human body. These rough models reveal things that screens can't – how something feels in your hands, how light plays across surfaces, how forms relate to human scale. They're fast, honest tools for testing ideas and often lead to unexpected discoveries.
On-the-floor design review
Details
Table leg details
Models for evaluating comfort & grip
Proportion and scale of elements
Bench top assembly
Nexus chair prototype assembly
