read more: sustainable web design

"How can the web have a sustainability problem when 'paperless' and 'eco-friendly' frequently share the same sentence? After all, designers in many disciplines are trying to fix their own sustainability problems by moving them online – in other words, things are made 'green' when they go on the web...While some products become more sustainable by converting them to a swarm of bits, we must remember that those bits require something very physical to exist – a big, high-tech network, using lots of electricity and always-on computers to operate."

- Pete Markiewicz, Save the Planet Through Sustainable Web Design

starting over

This week a professor assigned a writing exercise: one to two sentences that "distill your career and life experience and create a succinct statement about yourself as an innovator." It seemed like an overwhelming requires, but soon after I started brainstorming, my sentences became clear.

Striving to create change is only half the equation. If purposeful change is the desired outcome, it must be intentionally designed.

I am a designer. I am an activist. I strive to create stronger communities, safer communities, more beautiful communities. Solely ending existing injustices will not create this change, I must envision, articulate and build it. Something to remember during these late nights of work. We all must design it, together. 

read more: the duty of design

"It is enough for good design to be things we cherish because they are beautiful, well made, or a pleasure to use, but it seems to me that our daily lives are dominated by barely competent and sometimes downright sinister works of industrial design, and I do not understand why designers don’t spend more time chasing down these opportunities.

The whole infrastructure of security and surveillance that dominates our experience of the city today (to take just one example) has gone untouched by the field of product design in any meaningful way. These are works of design that take justice and trust as their topic, and they make it pretty clear how those in power think of us as citizens."
- Kieran Long, On the Civic Duty of Product Design for Dezeen 

My office on Glitter Guide

Yesterday I had the honor of having my office featured on Glitter Guide alongside several of my Rue colleagues and other amazing business women. While still very much a work in progress I love my little office and was excited to share. Plus amazing photographer and friend Anna Marks shot my space and made it look amazing. 

We only got to share one image on Glitter Guide so my other favorites are below the jump. Then head over to Glitter Guide to read my tips for staying organized.

gravity and grace

A friend sent me a link to the art work of El Anatsui after she saw his work at the Brooklyn Museum. El Anatsui " converts found materials into a new type of media that lies between sculpture and painting, combining aesthetic traditions from his birth country, Ghana; his home in Nsukka, Nigeria; and the global history of abstraction." His show, Gravity and Grace, at the Brooklyn Museum has "over 30 works in metal and wood that transform appropriated objects into site-specific sculptures." 

new collection launched

Recently I shot my newest collection of jewelry with the help of three amazingly talented women- Kelli Ryder, my teammate at Rue and a talented stylist, Anna Marks, an wonderful photographer, and Sarah Long of Sarah's Ambitions, shown here as my stunning model.

I'm thankful that they got a great reception at the Rue office and our Editor-in-Chief chose to give a sneak peek of the still-in-development lookbook on Rue Daily. I've saved my favorite images for Rue so hurry over and check it out.

Then get your summer shopping done online on my online shop or BRIKA.

read more: richard rogers on an architect's duty

"In my generation the idea was you'd build for the future... The idea is that we have a responsibility to society. That gives us a role as architects not just to the client but also to the passer-by and society as a whole."
- From Denzeen