Bertholt [Bair’tohlt] noun, Designer

You and I are surrounded by design. Some of it’s great. Some of it’s mediocre. And some of it is just terrible. When we say design, people often think of style. That’s OK sometimes. In many markets, great style is the difference between succeeding and losing, but style is only one sliver of something much bigger.

Thousands of decisions go into defining what that object will end up being. All of those decisions are design. More specifically, design is concerned with the entire interaction a human has with a made object. Some of that interaction is emotional. Objects or graphics make you feel a certain way. Much of the design is functional. It can make confusing things clear. It can make difficult tasks simple, or it can enable us to do new things. This functional territory is where design matters most. Unifying these functional and aesthetic goals is what I’m interested in.

My passion is to create graphics, products, and visuals that delight people. Emotionally, they are pleasing. Functionally, they do what they are supposed to do and do it well. It is all about the audience – the people who consume your products. Their voice is the most important voice – and for them to be heard – design needs to be present at the very beginning of a project.

If you’re the curious type, check out my first blog post. It unpacks my approach to design: Principles of Relevant Design.

Maybe that means I’m a hipster: that guy sipping a pour-over, straight black, at the neighborhood café with an ironic mustache and thick glasses. I mean look at my face in the banner image above. Typical (I know, the mustache was shaved off for that photo).

I’m slightly obsessed with Legos and enjoy a good bike ride. I’m a husband and a father with two daughters. We live in Buffalo, which is undergoing a wonderful resurgence. This city is SO great, except that winter is two months longer than anywhere else. You can find me on a bike or at coffee shops in Buffalo. Say hi, I’d love to bump into you!