Designing.
Driven by curiosity, Duane’s work has been recognized by Graphis, The 100 Show, The Art Directors Club, I.D. Magazine, Communication Arts, Creative Review, IdN, Print and HOW Magazine. Among his clients: MoMA, Bloomingdale’s, Luigi Bormioli, Nambé, Orrefors, Kosta Boda, Neiman Marcus, Herman Miller, Northrop Grumman, Activision, Sega and id Software.
View Portfolio.Thinking.
Duane is the founder of Thinking for a Living, a publisher and curator of thought-provoking design content and a creator of meaningful experiences. We are about spirited creations and seeding great ideas. Good ideas benefit someone. Great ideas benefit everyone.
View Thinking for a Living.Writing.
The Grid System is an upcoming book that is being written by Antonio Carusone and Duane King. Published by Laurence King Publishing, the book is a extension of thegridsystem.org, the ultimate resource in grid systems.
Visit The Grid System.100% Soda.
When approached by an independent beverage company to rebrand their line of 100% natural, carbonated juices, I asked a simple question. “Why not call it 100%? It only makes sense.” Graphically, I felt that nothing said ‘pure’ better than clean graphics and being direct, so we decided to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid). This direction helps to differentiate these beverages from all of the other ‘natural’ soda options. And so another brand is born. Watch for it in your local grocery stores.
MoMA Peace Dove.
The Museum of Modern Art’s holiday card program began in 1954 with the introduction of holiday cards created by contemporary artists and designers whose work was represented in the Museum’s exhibitions or permanent collection. Over the years, many well-known artists have contributed to the program including Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Ben Shahn and Joseph Cornell. It was an honor to join these ranks with the introduction of my card designs in 2009.
MoMA Gift Cards.
The Museum of Modern Art’s holiday card program began in 1954 with the introduction of holiday cards created by contemporary artists and designers whose work was represented in the Museum’s exhibitions or permanent collection. Over the years, many well-known artists have contributed to the program including Alexander Calder, Robert Indiana, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Ben Shahn and Joseph Cornell. It was an honor to join these ranks with the introduction of my card designs in 2009.
Thinking for a Living.
Thinking for a Living is a publisher and curator of thought-provoking design content and a creator of meaningful experiences. We are about spirited creations and seeding great ideas. Good ideas benefit someone. Great ideas benefit everyone. With this design, we tried to think ahead and create a site that was a paradigm shift in interactivity and turn the traditional blog format on its head — or in this case, on its side. Thinking for a Living was created in collaboration with Frank Chimero, Ian Coyle and Shane Bzdok.
The Standard.
Voyeur was the code name for a program designed to spread the culture of The Standard via mobile and online mediums. This culture will be reinforced in the physical space of the hotel itself through both print and the environment. The iPhone application would allow users to take a photo, or choose one from their iPhone camera roll, convert it to black and white and then tag it with The Standard logo. You can then save the compositions created in your camera roll and email them to friends or upload them to the campaign web site.
Luigi Bormioli.
With products available in stores as diverse as Target, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Williams-Sonoma, and Crate&Barrel, Luigi Bormioli has been making crystal and glass tableware for over 60 years. The challenge: to create an efficient site that promotes the brand’s heritage and highlights the forms of their products while illustrating the proportional relationships of each collection. Our solution: a HTML and jQuery site with a clean, simple layout that puts all of the emphasis on the products while maintaining search engine compatibility and a high level of interactivity. The site won a bronze at the the Art Directors Club 88th Annual Awards.
BBDK, Inc.
Playing on international style and grid systems, this site features English, German, Italian, Dutch and French simultaneously. Half of the traffic to the site was of European origin so we decided it was time to start speaking to our audience in their native tongue. The site layout has been reduced to the basics — typography and an interactive navigation. The typography balances a classic font, common in 70’s fashion advertising, with a contemporary pixel font while the palette captures the vibrancy and intensity of our environment in Santa Fe.
Ore Studios.
Ore Studios is a new interior design studio that was formed by Andy Beers and Cara Scarola. When approached by the duo about branding their new venture, the idea of Venn diagrams and famous couples came to mind. After all, Ore Studios was about the combination of two designers coming together to make something better. Bonnie & Clyde. Bert & Ernie. Cara & Andy. This site design relies on the simple power of an idea and the resulting smile to create a lasting impression.
Bbwriter.
With over 30 years of copywriting and fiction writing experience, Bbwriter (aka Bill Baldwin) is all about words. With work spanning several generations of advertising and design history, we wanted to make sure that the focus was on his words, not the site itself. A straight-forward layout featuring classic typography was created that truly let his words speak for themselves.
Beautiful & Useful.
A Shaker proverb says, “Don’t make something unless it is both necessary and useful; but if it is both necessary and useful, don't hesitate to make it beautiful.” Beautiful & Useful is a product line that was introduced at the 2007 International Contemporary Furniture Fair that showcases American designers and manufacturers. Our initial product launch was a limited-edition line of frames based on specific periods in the history of furniture design.
Bloomingdale’s.
Bloomingdale’s asked BBDK to promote their new San Francisco store online. They specified the site have a look and feel that represented the respective styles of two cities as vibrant as New York and San Francisco. At the same time, they wanted to showcase their top designers from Biba to Louis Vuitton. This teaser site was created with the collective talent of Athletics on a very short deadline to work in conjunction with a print campaign in magazines, newspapers, and billboards.
Herman Miller SQA.
Herman Miller SQA is a business unit of Herman Miller, Inc., a leading manufacturer of office furniture and systems. SQA garnered international attention for it’s cutting-edge use of technology to simplify the designing and ordering process of furniture systems. The web site is designed to capture the spirit of the company, which is known for it’s simple, direct and often humorous approach to conducting business.
Neiman Marcus.
In Fall 1999, we launched an e-commerce website for Neiman Marcus, combining the modern technology of online retailing with the enduring philosophy developed by the founders over 90 years ago: that their customers can expect extraordinary merchandise and superior service in an elegant environment. The site was completely redesigned each month throughout the year to stay current with fashion trends and print collateral — most importantly, their world-famous print catalog ‘The Book.’
Orrefors.
Orrefors is a Swedish company that has been making art glass for over 250 years. Working with a small team of programmers, we created and directed the execution of a layout based on the grid system theories of Josef Müller-Brockmann. This flexible system allowed for pages with large brand imagery, a crisp layout, and a clear navigational hierarchy with room for growth. The parent company in Sweden liked it so much these sites are going to be translated to eight additional languages.
Kosta Boda.
When initially approached by Orrefors and Kosta Boda, we were presented with the challenge of selling two brands in one site. After consideration of the difference between the two brands and the resulting potential for consumer confusion we advised against a single site. In order to maintain brand messages and to sufficiently track site and advertising performance, two sites with a common structure were created that, through the magic of CSS, share a common code base and content management system.
Pioneer10.
Pioneer10 is my personal portfolio and the launch pad for my career. Pioneer10 is an ongoing project that evolved over several years and continues to do so today. The site has also been featured on QBN, Styleboost, Netdiver, k10k, Design is Kinky, SHIFT Japan, Linkdup, Design Meltdown, Wellvetted and many more. This exposure has lead to numerous opportunities to contribute to design projects around the world.