A brief and myopic history of the design studio...

Once, we occupied workplaces with fluorescent lights, little desks packed in shoulder-to-shoulder, the water cooler and Mr. Coffee pot. Due at eight-o’clock, lunch at noon, back by one, otherwise constant clicking or typing. Then, liberation! Home was work and work was home, the promised land of ‘do whatever feels right.’ But the lines blurred, we stopped working or stopped living. Humans—collaborators, clients, friends—became little pixels on little screens, isolation killing creativity.

So here we are again, back to the days of wake up, dress up, go to work. Lunch at noon, home at five. This time, though, it’s not an office, it’s a design studio. And this time, its ours!

Now, the days aren’t mindlessly filled with clicking and typing, because sometimes staring at the wall is the best use of time. We don’t talk about billable hours, because some of the best ideas come in the middle of the night. Some days we smash burgers on the flat top, others we have meetings with real humans, and others we spend hours in code. There’s still plenty of clicking and typing, of course. But it’s no longer the benchmark of success.

We choose a slower, more human approach to work, one where the process is the art, where the space we occupy matters, and where who we are becoming—ourselves, our clients, our collaborators, friends—is as important as what we are making. Because design, more than anything, is a way of living, a way of connecting to ourselves, to each other, and to beauty.