what we do

We are designers who partner with communities and disciplinary experts on projects for sustainable development and leverage multiple perspectives to create new value. Bringing together people from diverse communities and disciplines, we design creative, innovative, and sustainable solutions for social, cultural, economic, and environmental problems. We believe design is a tool to empower people and change the way we think.


developing partnerships. The value of our process is beyond the products we produce – it is what we cumulatively share, exchange, and learn with all of our partners. Projects we undertake are rich opportunities for innovation, development, and a positive impact for all. We work to leverage these values. The designShares site is a space to articulate the ideas we have and how we put these ideas into practice. We hope successful projects and lessons learned are used, reproduced, and made better by others for development and change.


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what we're working on

pixan logo

JULY 2010: Pixan, an organic farm-centric project in Noh-Bec, Quintana Roo. Last year Laila Simonovsky designed Pixan's identity mark in collaboration with organic farmer/d4d partner Gualberto Cazanova with the support of the University of Florida University Scholars grant.

In 2010 Narayan Ghiotti received a University Scholars grant to continue working on this project. He's working on design strategy and we'll see what intangibles and tangibles emerge. Today we met with Gualberto to talk about the next phase of the “pixan” project. Narayan will be working with Gualberto in the field (literally) and it will be an opportunity for learning and exchange. I’m very pleased with this connection and happy to see this greeted with so much enthusiasm by everyone.

For more on the region see Wikipedia.

MARCH 2010 Maria Rogal, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at University of Florida, recently completed work that was supported by the AIGA Design Research grant. As the first recipient of the grant, Maria conducted the project she proposed throughout 2009—design for development. Following is a brief of the project she completed. Maria will present her work at the AIGA Design Educators Conference in Raleigh, NC in the fall of 2010.


SPRING 2010 On design for selling moringa powder in southern Africa with Ed Lin of Impala Development Services. This is a project with the UF Graphic Design Technologies & Processes class (BFA class of 2011). Visit our blog or find us on Facebook.

FALL 2009 Design of identity mark for Expo de la semilla Maya in Quintana Roo (March 2010).

SUMMER 2009 Continued Web site design and development for Kuxtal along with additional products. Continuing work on artisan project, xyaat, and editing fieldwork videos, thick descriptions from fieldwork trip in Feb 09.

APRIL 2009 Web site design and development for Kuxtal along with additional products.

FEB 2009 Returning from fieldwork research for a UNDP funded project to create Kuxtal Sian Ka'an, to promote a sustainable handicraft industry. This is a collaborative project led by U´yo´olché and Amigos de Sian Ka'an. We worked on discovery and definition phases in Quintana Roo, México to inform the design process and develop new projects. Read more about this on our blog. Met with Gualberto Casanova Mezeta in Noh-Bec for potential project related to organic farming and to bring organic, local products direct to market. Visited other artisans in the region and Marcos Canté of Cooperativa Xyaat in Señor.

life in context


Día del Migrante Yucateco.
Santa Elena, Yucatán, México.

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