“There is much more to branding than a logo or style. It is a manifestation of power.” –Rodney Abbot, Caps Lock, pg. 131 “It is important to understand the violent part of the history of branding, …

And how we can steal it back.

Below is the final section of Part 3 from my recent grad school design paper in which I attempt to imagine a not-so-distant future world for the post-capitalist designer. We began by de-commodifyin…

This is Part 3 of my recent grad school design paper in which I attempt to imagine a not-so-distant future world for the post-capitalist designer. We begin by de-commodifying the basic necessities …

This is Part 3a of my recent grad school design paper in which I begin to imagine a not-so-distant future world for the post-capitalist designer. We begin by de-commodifying the basic necessities o…

This is the second section in Part 2 of my recent grad school design paper in which I explore two contemporary, post-capitalist movements that have much to offer our creative endeavor to imagine a …

This is the first section in Part 2 of my recent grad school design paper in which I explore two contemporary, post-capitalist movements that have much to offer our creative endeavor to imagine a n…

This is the fourth section in Part 1 of my recent grad school design paper in which I explore four laboratories of non-capitalist and postsocialist design. Please find the preceding sections below …

I’ve decided to post my recent grad school paper in chunks since it is much longer than an average blog post. Below is the introduction. … Introduction Design is many things, but if we …

“Rodchenko names a new kind of emotionally affective object: the comradely object of socialist modernity. Unlike the commodities he encounters on his visit to capitalist Paris, which elicit a posse…

“The choice, as James Cone insists, is that God must be Black; without that commitment, the universal story is not possible, because Whiteness fails to express solidarity with all – and God’s…

“The central theme in the prophecy of Joel, one of the 12 minor prophets (dōdekaprophēton), is that the Day of the Lord (yōm ădȏnay) is at hand (chs. 2–3). […] Joel utilizes the concept conte…

“This creates the series of questions Pluribus forces us to confront in every episode: Is our freedom—our autonomy—really too high a price to pay in exchange for global happiness and organized, res…

It has become a habit of mine over the years to make gifts for friends and family for Christmas, and this year my spouse, Erin, and I wrote, designed, illustrated, and produced home made Christmas …

“Whisper whisper whisper.” –Anonymous ASMRtist old pond– frog jumps in. Plop! –Matsuo Bashô “In Whitehead’s analysis of an occasion of experience, the “category of transmutation” …

“Be “dialectical” just for one minute: imagine a world where there is no point in teaching people things, the process of education is replaced by The Answer (no shade to Allen Iverson). You just… a…

“Consciousness flickers; and even at its brightest, there is a small focal region of clear illumination, and a large penumbral region which tells of intense experience in dim apprehension.” –Whiteh…

“As a general rule, and speaking roughly, laughter doubtless exercises a useful function. Indeed, the whole of our analysis points to this fact. But it does not therefore follow that laughter alway…

“…branding animals ‘invasive’ is not only unethical, but it is also based on a confused understanding of species migrations over time. The reason that the rhetoric of invasive species has bec…

“The adoption of fixed settlements also created problems with regard to the status of women. When a hunter-gatherer people took up fixed settlement, in actual practice it pursued its livelihood thr…

“All of us are already civilian soldiers, without knowing it… The great stroke of luck for the military class’s terrorism is that no one recognizes it. People don’t recognize the militarized …

Last week's reflections about Bob Sutton's book  The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't reminded m...

This is the introduction to a paper on William Morris I am writing for a MFA class, the rough draft of which I recently submitted.  Introduction As generative AI floods our screens with astonishing…

The old “religious right” is gone. The new one is weirder — and harder to fight.

When animal cruelty trumps capitalism.

“As an occupation, policing necessarily involves people in a violent institution, demands they forfeit their freedom to a hierarchical chain of command and constraints imposed by their oath of offi…

Over the past few decades, the Christian right has grown to wield tremendous power in the United States. Its conflictual, Manichean worldview has offered reassuring certainties to its followers in an ...

“A few banal fantasies float across white evangelicalism. It seldom tires of arguing over hell, substitutionary atonement, or biblical inerrancy, and it never misses an opportunity to judge women o…