“Burst of creativity, of self-expression and ideas is what drives us as creatives, so, how does this idea get expressed in a simple visual? We took a literal pattern of an explosion, and reduced it to square pixels…the offsets and size variations creating an abstract, yet recognizable shape of a burst. The resulting drawing is reminiscent of a bright light-spot, a sun…squint your eyes, and the abstract shapes become something bright and optimistic.”

“I have invested a lot of creative energy and fuseproject studio time in the idea that design can make a difference: beyond the value we create for enterprises and for the users, it is the VALUES we create that have long term impact. This approach has resulted in a few civic projects that we have invested in such as the One Laptop Per Child (100$ laptop) with Nicholas Negroponte, and the New York City Condom and dispensers we have done for the department of Health of NY. Design has a democratizing power, as designers we need to use that power.”

“This design is an expression of the freedom of flight. The shapes are biomorphic and abstract- birds, but not birds. They scatter across the curved surfaces like leaves blown by the breeze, random, chaotic, joyful. The colors are earth tones, the color of plains, forests and deserts, the color of the land beneath the sky and the cycle of the seasons.
I recently learned to fly. Flying a small plane is a study in contradictions; it is both an expression of freedom and an acknowledgment of man’s lack of freedom. I am pushing my self expression further than most pilots by learning aerobatics. Being able to do loops, rolls and hammerheads allows me to play in all three dimensions. But even the best airplane can only approximate the experience a bird must have. Knowing instinctively how to fly from soon after birth, to them, the sky must feel like home.”

“The Sierra Club works to preserve our open spaces, protect wilderness and endangered species, and provide outdoor programs and education. Their work makes it possible for everyone to enjoy the freedom of the natural world.”

“I call my design “Unlock the Cure”. Cancer has affected far too many people in my life and I’m committed to doing something about it. The cure is out there, we just need to find the key. The light-reflective and luminous quality of the metallic finish symbolizes hope and optimism.”

“I want to give back to the Cancer Research Institute because they are leaders in supporting the development of strategies to treat and prevent cancer. Giving back is important to me because I think we all have a duty to try to leave this world a little bit better than the way we found it.”

“I love meaningful decoration. Historically, decoration was used as a form of language, as well as a means of denoting the possibility of the human hand, the richness of craft, the workmanship of a period. With automation and the industrial revolution decoration was developed to carry on the spirit of the past, and a way of ‘humanizing’ industrial objects. Now in our new digital age we see new digitally inspired decorative language taking place. Once decoration spoke of ritual, religious iconography, or spiritual images - now I am interested in it speaking to us about our new spiritualism - the spirit of the digital and information age.

“I want to give back to “Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS”. It is one of the country’s most proactive supporters of direct care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Merging care and commerce and design, since supporters of DIFFA come from all fields of fine design and the visual arts, including: architecture, fashion design, interior design, photography and consumer product design I feel I can continue to make a contribution to a cause that also has made the world of design a more public subject.”

“The concept is my expression of the beauty of life. I chose a delicate and elegant branch with dew dropping off of it to represent earth, water and life.”

“DIFFA: Design Industry Fighting Aids. I have been donating to them for many years for a variety of reasons: 1) Larry Pond was the Director of Design at Stendig and introduced my first chair, he began DIFFA and has since died of AIDS, 2) I have a family member that is HIV positive and 3) I believe it is simply a good choice.”

“We decided to take the three basic ways of setting type as a reference (for us only), that are: flash left (for the long bench) Centered (for the middle one) and justified (for the table) so we played the usual interaction between design fields…
We were not interested in flowery patterns, so the lines were natural for us. That was our inspiration…”

“For the last 25 years, RIT has been collecting archives of the best modernist graphic designers of the last century and they really use this material for teaching, so the students learn, about History, Theory and Criticism, directly from the archive material. Really a rare opportunity, that no other Institutions share. RIT is expanding their collecting policy to include some product design and our Archive will be the first to cover the whole field of Design. Worldwide, it is quite rare to find an Archive Center for Design Studies that is well organized, always open to the students and scholars. The Vignelli Center for Design Studies at the RIT will be an alive place, to support the education of the designers of the next generations.”

“The “No ornamentation” series comments on the systematic overuse of ornamentation in contemporary furniture. The resurgence of decorative elements has been a welcome change from the unflinching minimalism of the early 2000’s but it has also given birth to an array of products that have used such ornamental surface treatments merely to cover up their mediocrity. One & Co applauds the furniture for its simplicity yet chooses to have its cheeky manifesto applied to it. Thus the typographic application results in ornamentation in its own right.”

“It’s obvious that the world we live in is not a balanced one. How can we - the lucky ones - enjoy our prosperity when it seems unattainable to others? Giving is one of many avenues to address that biggest of problems. Architecture for Humanity has proven that good design can directly benefit those in immediate need - due to displacement, poverty or catastrophe.”