design : The Art of Non-Conformity

Profiles

A Quest to Visit (and Illustrate!) Every U.S. National Park

Technical mapper turned visual storyteller Karla Sanders met restless Colombian web designer Andres in Italy and fell in love. Now, they’re back in America and on a quest to visit all 59 national parks in the U.S.—with a twist.

About a year into having an Etsy store, I was also working as an in-house graphic designer in Cleveland. To sustain our outdoorsy natures, Andres and I would go hiking in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. Our online shop was doing fairly well, but something was missing.
While on one of those hikes, the idea just came to us: why not combine our love of the our local national park and our illustration skills? Our first masterpiece for Hike & Draw was our illustrated map of all 59 natural national parks.

The Magic Button of Good Design

At least once a week I receive questions about the design process behind the self-published work I’ve made, in particular the three manifestos I offered a few years ago.

"What software do you use?" people want to know. In other words, how do I “make them look good”?

I'm no designer, but as a writer I appreciate the value of imagery and structure that works in harmony with words. I also know that there’s no big secret to it, nor is there a shortcut.

“It Was Too Ugly to Die in There”

Michael Graves, the designer who improved tea kettles for the masses thanks to his partnership with Target stores, recently took on a new challenge. The original hospital wheelchair, apparently still in widespread use, was based off a design from way back in 1933. Graves decided to update it, and also worked on other hospital equipment…

A Tale of Two Designers

In The $100 Startup I wrote about two young art school graduates from Columbus, Ohio who had built a successful design business. Their business initially began by chance, when a map they’d made for themselves turned into a hugely popular online product, with orders coming in from all over the world. Very quickly, Jen Adrion…