Writing and Teaching

In 2009 I wrote a little book that examined the varied aspects of a variety of ecological problems. Should you eat meat? Should you get a hybrid car? Should you buy organic produce? The answers are more complicated than you think. But that's the point - making green decisions requires ongoing thinking.

The Humblefactory is my design lab, working on the concrete solutions that can be used in a more ecologically engaged design future. But there is a whole body of ethical and strategic thinking the underlies these designs, and Humblefacture.com is a the manifesto for this new body of thinking about manufacturing.

Way back when blogging was a new thing, I felt like there weren't enough theoretical design blogs, so I made one. It's no longer active, but it got me connected to a bunch of the folks who I've been lucky to work with over the past almost two decades.

I was one of the early writers for Treehugger.com after Graham Hill founded it, and worked as a writer and editor off and on until it was sold to Discovery Networks.

I am a Teaching Professor in the Division of Design in the School of Art at the University of Washington. I teach courses about materials, sustainability, design history, electronics prototyping, game design, and how human culture interacts with designed objects.