As the founder and namesake of Taylor, Dan is the creative and operating force of the studio. His design expertise and even-tempered, inclusive, “somehow-someway-get-things-done” approach are central to how Taylor Design delivers award-winning communications, digital, branding and marketing solutions. Partnering with clients such as Columbia University, Terex, Mount Sinai Health, Spectrum, Northwestern University, Starwood, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Dan simply loves his job. To beat traffic, he rides to the office on his Cannondale. To come up with big ideas, he hires and collaborates with outstanding talent.
On the side: Dan is a Professor of Design at the University of Connecticut and serves on the board of the BCFC’s Growth Network and AIGA Connecticut.
Before Taylor: Creative director at William Snyder Design, Inc., NYC; Designer with Pushpin, Lubalin, Peckolick, NYC; Beau Gardner Associates, NYC; and Steve Burnett, Inc., NYC. Graduated with a BFA in Graphic Design from the Rochester Institute of Technology. As a high school sophomore, Dan was homecoming king—with Hollywood’s Meg Ryan as queen—in Connecticut.
Recommended digital field trips: Instagram, NY Times, Nike+, and Map My Ride
Favorite IRL field trips: Jay Peak, VT, Park City, UT, and Point Judith, RI
Last month I wrote about Land O’ Lakes—the butter and dairy company based in Minnesota that dropped the American Indian maiden from its packaging after nearly a century. This happened before the global protests following the May 25th death of George Floyd. Now practically every brand with a racist name or image is making changes.… Read More
On August 23, 2019, I wrote an article about the images, names, and references to America’s native peoples, after a visiting an exhibition titled “Americans” at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. I discovered this week that one of the brands I had featured, Land O’ Lakes—the butter and dairy company based in… Read More
When NASA was founded in 1959, the organization’s first logo featured a blue planet, stars, an orbiting comet, and a red flying V. It served NASA well, landing on the moon with Neil Armstrong in 1969. A few years later, a NY design studio named Danne & Blackburn was hired to redesign the NASA logo,… Read More
Restaurant owners in our studio’s neighborhood have crafted their own signs to communicate their state of affairs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some signs are computer generated while others are drawn by hand. Some signs are philosophical about their limited operations while others have thrown in the towel and simply written “closed.” The Peruvian restaurant below… Read More
Symbols of power, oppression, and hate have a long and sordid history. Germany’s Nazi swastika, Russia’s hammer and sickle, and Japan’s rising sun, branded three of the world’s most brutal regimes. Enter a more recent symbol known as Pepe the frog. Created by comic book artist Matt Furie in 2005, its popularity grew as an… Read More