50 on Fire will bring together D.C.’s best and brightest to recognize the disruptors, luminaries and visionaries that are pushing our city forward. Buy your tickets now and join us on Dec. 1 at Howard Theatre for the celebration and winners reveal.
Everywhere you look, there’s design. Whether it’s in the desktop products you own, the restaurants you go to or the logos on your laptop stickers, the 50 on Fire 2016 Design finalists and their work are hard to miss.
Let’s take a look at who our Design finalists are — and what they’ve been up to for the past few years.
David Shove-Brown, //3877 studios — Shove-Brown and his business partner David Tracz founded their design studio in 2011. They’re the first to admit that their approach is pretty “weird” for the industry — but that’s what’s landed them clients like D.C. location of Momofuku Milk Bar, the 3 Stars Brewery and local pizza chain Matchbox.
Morgan West, A Creative DC — In January 2015, Morgan West founded A Creative DC, a design-centered community group, as a way of bringing together all of the different kinds of design in D.C. — from murals in alleyways to D.C. retailers. They live primarily on Instagram, where creatives share their work with others. Over a quarter of a million perspectives have been shared in the first 18 months of the launch, using the #acreativeDC hashtag.
Suann Song, Appointed — Song founded her product-driven company, Appointed, with plenty of branding and design experience under her belt. She had worked at the Kennedy Center, at a major D.C. PR firm and had done branding work for the National Mall and West Elm. Now, Song is the founder and CEO of Appointed, which sells U.S. manufactured desktop products, like notebooks and Post-It notes. Her products are now in 200 stores worldwide, and they only launched last year.
Tracy Bromley, Bespokery — Bromley launched her Bethesda-based startup in 2015. Simply put, her platform connects designers with sewists and then with the customers who would be interested in their products. They now have four factory locations.
David Waguespack, Case Design Remodeling — As well as working as the Director of Project Development of Bethesda-based Case Design, Waguespack donates his preliminary design services to help causes around the DMV, including the Homeless Children’s Playtime Project, Lab School Gala Fundraiser and Sheridan School Fundraiser.
Mike Van Hall, Committee on Opprobriations — Van Hall is the man in D.C. who is making the DMV’s best beers look as good as they taste. In his former life, he was a lawyer, but his creative work through his Committee on Opprobriations, including a series of Modernist prints dedicated to specific hop varietals, brought him some attention. Eventually, he was asked to design the labels to new brews at Baltimore(ish)-based Stillwater Artisanal.
Gary Williams, Creative Theory — Williams is the co-founder of Creative Theory, a D.C.-based creative agency that works to make an organization’s brand feel like family. Williams has also worked as a professional photographer for nearly a decade, and his work has been featured in GQ magazine.
Susan Tynan – Framebridge — Tynan’s custom framing tech startup has framed more than 100,000 images since it launched two years ago. Framebridge has raised $20.5 million from big names like Revolution, SWaN & Legend Venture Partners and a personal investment from Steve Case.
Eric Astor, Furnace Records — Astor is the CEO behind the roughly two-decade long vinyl record making operation based in Fairfax, Va. Last year, Furnace Records Printing. In 2015, the company announced plans to start building their own vinyl pressing plant.
Buddy Bernhard, Local Motors — As a tech company, Local Motors is disrupting the auto manufacturing industry by enabling everyday consumers to open source design a vehicle that will be 3-D printed and available for pick-up within three business days. The company launched in 2007.
Peter Chang and Brandon Hill, No Kings Collective — The designing duo has been working with a family of artists, designers and brand at their D.C.-based agency since 2009. They’re a design-build studio, creative agency and events production company all rolled into one. Past clients include &pizza, 1776, General Assembly and so many more D.C. based brands.
Payman Taei, Visme — Taei is the founder of the online platform that allows users to create online presentations, animations, animated HTML banners, infographics, and other fun visual aids. The company was founded in 2012.
Gavin Daniels, Wingate Hughes — Daniels is the co-founder of the design firm behind some of the coolest office firms in the district. Think of your favorite Office Envy posts from DC Inno. Yeah, Wingate Hughes was probably the force behind that.
Images used by CC0 1.0 — credit Karolina
