Writing on Design & Climate
I write about the potential of design to help create a more just and sustainable society. My writing takes the form of books, book chapters, academic articles, think pieces, and climate fiction. ORCID ID | SCOPUS
Books Authored
Design to Renourish: Sustainable Graphic Design in Practice
Inspiration is everywhere when you stop to not just smell, but also to watch the roses. Mother Nature’s interwoven relationships with all life forms can be a powerful model for graphic designers to create sustainable print and digital work. Design to Renourish is a book for the graphic design professional that helps to integrate sustainability into their workflow through a design process called systems thinking. This process asks the graphic designer to approach a design problem by being more informed, aware of, and influenced by the impacts that material and vendor choices have on one another, the planet, and consequently on us.
Writings on Medium.com
What was promising from 2023 and inspires Climify guests in 2024
A hopepunk climate fiction story set in 2047 in Stillwater, Oklahoma
I have been hoping to write about design, the environment, and science fiction for quite a long while, and the recent explosion of AI in our design software and daily life has provided an immediate opportunity to do so. So, thank you science.
I have struggled over the years to figure out how to inspire climate action through design. Through this journey, I wondered often if an important way we could encourage more progress was to rethink and rebrand how we communicated climate action to the public.
What the Five Principles of Soil Health Can Teach Designers
Systems Thinking is “the way”
The planet and humanity needs designers to change the way they make things.
Beyond your professional design life, there is a lot you can do in your public and personal life to improve the world.
Peer Reviewed Articles
Sustainable Design
“What is Sustainable Graphic Design?” (2007).
“Ideas for Integrating Sustainability into Graphic Design Pedagogy: American Case Studies,” (2007).
“Ethics of a Designer in a Global Economy: A Class on Contemporary Design Issues,” (Summer 2008). (with John Jennings).
“Graphic Junk: Re-evaluating What We Make,” (2009).
“Counterculture Green: The Whole Earth Catalog and American Environmentalism: A Review,” (2010).
“Designing the Immaterial,” (Spring 2010).
“Emotional Ecomodernism: Is Using Bamboo Really Enough?” (2011). (with Cliff Shin & Deana McDonagh).
“Sustainable Design Education Rethought: The Case for Eco-Modernism,” (Spring 2011). (with Peter Fine).
“Designing a Sustainable Design Studio,” (2011).
“Connecting Values: Teaching Sustainability to Communication Designers,” (2012). (with Pamela Napier).
“Dezombies and the Coming Design Apocalypse: Confronting the Urgent Need to Increase Racial Diversity and Environmental Awareness in University-Level American Communication Design Programs.” (2017). (with John Jennings & Michael Gibson).
“Hidden Connections: Holistic approaches to Design for the Common Good," (2021). (with Michelle Fehler).
“A Shift to Life-Centered Systems Thinking: Teaching Modules to Design Regenerative Futures,” (2022). (with Michelle Fehler & Charlene Sequeira).
Design
“The Intersection of Identity Within Pattern & Structure: A FLYSPACE Continuing Collaboration,” (Spring 2010).
“Fusing Empathy and Cognitive Science into the Design Process,” (2011). (with Cliff Shin & Deana McDonagh).
“Systems Thinking and Connecting the Silos of Design Education,” (2013). (with Hyuna Park).
“Collaborating in Conceptual Spaces through Data Visualization: A Case Study on Simple NetInt, a JavaScript Storytelling Sketchpad.” (2022). (with Juan Salamanca).
“The Serenity Logo: Otherness and Inauthenticity.” (2022).
“How to Explain Design Research to Your Friends,” (2024). (with Nekita Thomas, Joshua Pridemore, Holly Strickland, Noelyn Stephens, and Yiqi Xiao).
Sustainable Materials Research
“Agri-fiber in 3-Dimensions,” (2018). (with Mark Taylor & Sameh Tawfick).
“A Case for a New Case Paper: From Farm to Table to Desk to Bench,” (2019). (with Quinn Ferris & Jennifer Teper).
“The Future of Paper: From Clothing to Corn,” Communication Arts Magazine, (2019).
“Fresh Press Agri-Fiber Lab.” (2022).
“Green Fabrication of Stackable Laser‐Induced Graphene Micro‐Supercapacitors under Ambient Conditions: Toward the Design of Truly Sustainable Technological Platforms,” Advanced Material Technologies, (2024).
Chapters in Books
Sustainable Design
“Best Practices to Design Sustainably,” in SustainAble: A Handbook of Materials and Applications for Graphic Designers and Their Clients, ed. Aaris Sherin. (2008).
“Publishing and Sustainability,” in Rethinking Paper and Ink: The Sustainable Publishing Revolution, ed. Melissa Brumer & Janine Eckhart. (2011).
“Designing Sustainable and Equitable Relationships with Communities,” Developing Citizen Designers, ed. Elizabeth Resnick. (2016).
"Design Education in the Anthropocene: Teaching Systems Thinking," in Right Research: Modeling Sustainable Research Practices in the Anthropocene, ed. Chelsea Miya, Oliver Rossier, & Geoffrey Rockwell. (2021).
Design
“Medium is the Message,” in The Graphic Design Process: how to be successful in design school, ed. Anitra Nottingham & Jeremy Stout. (2019).
Climate Fiction
“Over-consumption, the natural environment, and Earth that was," in Serenity: Essays on Joss Whedon’s ‘Big Damn Movie,’ ed. Frederick Blichert. (2018).