An identity for a small museum
Hudson, NY — 2025Wordmark, wayfinding, and a print system for a museum with two rooms and a very good gift shop.
IdentityPrintWayfindingBrooklyn, mostlyIndependent since 2022Available · selectively
Quiet work. Carefully made.
I write, design, and research at the intersection of typography, slow technology, and what working life could feel like. Three or four briefs a year, chosen slowly.
EditorialIdentityTypeResearchWriting
01Recent workLonger list over email
A selection
A type specimen for an indie foundry
Ordinary Type Co.TypePrint2024A small book about pausing
Self-publishedWritingBook design2023Editorial redesign for a quarterly
The Long MiddleEditorialArt direction2023
The practice
14
Years across studios and alone
3–4
Briefs a year, by design
1
Book underway, about creative practice
Enough briefs to do them properly.
Fourteen years in studios taught me what a brief needs; independence taught me how few to take. The rest of the time goes to writing and research — which is also, quietly, where the client work gets better.
Long-form preferredPrint-friendlySlow on purpose
How it went
Fourteen years, abbreviated
The studios, the leaving, and what independence actually looked like year by year.
First studio job
Junior designer at a four-person editorial studio. Set type badly for eighteen months and learned to read a printer's proof properly.
Books, finally
Moved to a house imprint. Forty-odd covers, six interiors, and the first specimen I would still show anyone.
Design director, museum group
Identity and wayfinding across three small institutions. Learned that signage is written before it is drawn.
Independent
Left with two clients and a rule: three or four briefs a year, fixed price, no discovery calls. Both clients are still here.
The first book of my own
Ninety-six pages about rests and margins. Second printing; the first sold out at readings.
Writing the second
A longer one, about creative practice. Client work funds it; the letter is where drafts appear first.
“She turned our two-room museum into a place that feels inevitable. Visitors photograph the signage.”
June Alvarez
Director · The Field Museum of Everyday Things
02What I take onFixed price, always
Three kinds of brief
01
Editorial design
Books, journals, specimens, annual reports that people actually read. From grid to printer handoff, 6–12 weeks.
02
Identity
Wordmarks and systems for small institutions and stubborn independents. Print-first, digital-fluent.
03
Writing + research
Essays, commissioned research, and the occasional naming problem. Rates by the piece, not the hour.
03Working togetherNo discovery calls
How a brief becomes work
Send the brief
A paragraph is enough — what it is, when it's needed, roughly what's set aside for it. I read everything and reply within a week.
A yes, a no, or a name
If it's not for me I'll say so and suggest someone better suited. If it is, you get a fixed price and a start date in writing.
The work
Fortnightly shares of real work in progress — no mood boards, no big reveal. You'll always know where the project stands.
The handoff
Files, sources, and a short written guide to living with the work. Then I disappear, pleasantly, until you need me again.
From the desk
Process, mostly
04Before you write
Fair questions
- How do we start?
- Send the brief by email. You'll get a yes, a no, or a question within a week — never a scheduling link.
- What does it cost?
- Fixed price after I've read the brief. No hourly billing; the meter changes how everyone thinks.
- What's the turnaround?
- Editorial projects run 6–12 weeks. If your date is immovable, say so up front and I'll tell you honestly whether it fits.
- Do you take small jobs?
- Sometimes — small and interesting beats big and beige. The book pile is the only real competition.
Working on something quiet?
A paragraph about it is plenty. I reply to every brief within a week — with a yes, a no, or the right person's name.
Three or four briefs a year · currently reading yours
Get in touch
Briefs, collaborations, writing commissions. I reply to every email; please give me a few days.
- hello@example.com
- Brooklyn, NY
- A short letter, every two months