D.I.G.S.
Duchamp’s Irreverent Guiding Spirit, Inc.
D.I.G.S.
It's hard to describe what we do at DIGS because I see it more like a lab where we test and try new ideas, concepts and product designs within existing sectors and frameworks of business or create new ones.
If I had to distill it?
It would be using design for good since 1991.
It is a framework that allows me to experiment and play: discover, create, test and problem solve.
If I had to categorize it?
It's a design house in the most traditional terms where creativity, consultancy and commerce blended naturally into a lifestyle and means of earning a living.
I don't distinguish my lifestyle and values from my work. Instead, I fuse my interests such as sustainability/resilience concepts into business ideation and innovation.
I have always taken the user's perspective when designing, whether it was for systems, navigation, or product use. Being perceptive, intuitive and a thinker, I am naturally collaborative, inquisitive and creative, channelling it into my work. This led to forming a 3 pronged business model over twenty years of operation where we bravely test ideas and products directly in the market place. Some succeed, some fail, we adapt and iterate as needed, it is a nuanced yet very strategic approach. The wholesale/retail component was developed in the mid nineties thru 2012 focusing on the lifestyle sector using sustainable design methodologies and fair-trade principles to produce goods. This led to adding a curated e-commerce site in 09 where int'l designers and artisans working in sustainable materials in fair-trade conditions could collaborate and penetrate the US market vertically, directly to consumers. Since 1995 I've been consulting for NGO's working in int'l economic development with SMEs trying to infuse the design process into their models from the inception so not only seeing design as an after thought or segment of their proposals.
Today, I continue to learn, teach and lead design projects that do good and improve peoples lives.
What's In A Name?
Duchamp's Irreverent Guiding Spirit, Inc.
Symbolizing my multi-disciplinary approach fusing art and industry. I played a dadaist game to create full name for acronym D.I.G.S. The acronym appealed to me because of all the definitions of the word "digs", imbued in search and discovery or slang for your home, all had notions of play.
Design Goals: It was clear from the start, I was interested in targeting the luxury lifestyle markets, designing contemporary products out of sustainable materials with fair-trade principles testing traditional business notions that only the bottom line mattered. Early on I was convinced there was a more holistic way and I set out to test it!
Logo: Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's Before a Broken Arm from his ready-made series, I photographed my Dad's shovel that resembled the one Duchamp used, applying it in the logo design and development throughout the companies growth