I take great pleasure in anything that’s well designed, whether it’s a street, a building, a garden, a kitchen gadget or the manual for that gadget. I like to understand what makes things work for people. And if something isn’t working, I like to work with people to make it better.
My design training began in earnest during my years as research assistant to information and book designer Edward R. Tufte. Since then I’ve designed art exhibitions, brochures, logos, product packaging and the website you’re reading. I have also guided university students in the production of posters, maps and websites combining images, words and numbers.
Click on the items below for details.
Since 1999 I have worked as a researcher, editor, and marketing strategist for information designer Edward R. Tufte at Graphics Press. I worked extensively on the research of his 2006 book Beautiful Evidence, a guide to the effective integration of words, images and numbers.
Since Tufte’s books are is self-exemplifying — propagating design principles in a book that is itself very beautifully designed — working for him is a masterclass in the formatting and physical production of books.
More recently (spring 2021) I reformatted Tufte’s first four books as ebooks, complete with active indexes and revised metadata, and I devised a marketing strategy.
In my role as Curator of European & American Art at the National Gallery of Canada my most challenging design challenge was overhauling 20 gallery rooms of painting, sculpture and decorative arts. The collection ranges over half a millennium, from the Middle Ages to the 1970s. In addition to writing engaging new wall text, I helped improve the visitor experience by changing everything from wall color and lighting to the designs of cases, bases, frames and dividing walls.
Click on the image below to learn about the construction of the Works on Paper Gallery and the design of the inaugural exhibition.
I have produced the websites and all branding — including logos, banners, websites and swag — for advocacy enterprises including Slow Ottawa, Vision Zero Canada, Love 30 Canada, and Small Museums Canada. The site that you’re reading indicates my current level of web design competency, and if you need a new website I can now work with any number of features including e-commerce and mailing lists.
Scroll down for a sampling of my graphic and web design work since 2015.
VISION ZERO CANADA
Launched in 2015, Vision Zero Canada is largely a web-based enterprise, complete with a home page and Twitter feed. I also made bike stickers, bumper stickers and posters. The graphics were designed using the font and green background of North American highway signs.
LOVE 30 CANADA
The graphics for the Love 30 Canada campaign are based on the logo of the European Love 30 campaign, but with a modified logo to break from their logo which entailed a heart in the form of a European-style speed limit sign. It’s a simple cause — campaigning solely for lowered speed limits on streets where people live — with a simple, upbeat campaign style. And it’s leading to widespread policy change that’s reducing harm and encouraging active mobility.
SMALL MUSEUMS CANADA
The logo for Small Museums Canada grew out of an early idea where I was making one of the m’s into an archway-with-steps. The design proved too fiddly, but I liked the steps so just put them to one side. The minimalist, bilingual design for the cleaning products was recognized by Canadian Design as a nod to Don Watt’s classic No Name branding.
I designed the site you’re reading to be simple yet information-rich, with seamless integration of word and image. It’s quick-loading and fully responsive — meaning it functions on devices of all shapes and sizes, from phone to tablet to desktop.
Years ago I made the WordPress sites for the enterprises mentioned in the CORPORATE DESIGN section above. The sites that haven’t passed into oblivion still do the job. for the most part. But, unlike the current site, they are not fully customizable, nor are they maintained.
I used Timeline JS software for communications relating to Canada 150 programming at the federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. A selection of fisheries timelines is archived here.
See TEACHING on the main menu for a description of my classes on data visualization and web design.