The Guy Who First Designed GOOD Now Has a Book. You Should Buy It.

Design for People is the forthcoming book from Scott Stowell and his studio Open.

Nearly nine years ago, I had the good fortune to hire Scott Stowell and his studio Open to design the first issue of GOOD. Then he did the second. And from there, we just kept working together for the next several years and many issues. It became a truly fantastic collaboration that helped make GOOD what it was, and in so many ways, still is.

Before GOOD and since, Stowell and studio have continued to do incredible work of all kinds— even earning himself the National Design Award in the process. This month, he’s raising funds for a book that chronicles Open’s work through the eyes of the clients and others with whom they’ve collaborated. In it, there will be stories about their projects with everyone from Patagonia to Etsy to Google to the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Included, of course, is the story behind GOOD’s origins.

Scott's notes from the first time Casey called

As Stowell recalls:

I don’t know if I’ll ever have a better experience than I had working on GOOD. It was the magazine I always wanted to make. It was something we were unabashedly enthusiastic about doing, and it had total buy-in from everyone involved. I had all these ideas pent up in my head for years about what I would do with a magazine, and here was the chance to do all of those things. GOOD was a great opportunity because it was a complete startup. No one had any idea what they were doing, and I mean that in the best way possible.

One of Scott’s early sketches for the design of different sections of the magazine

Okay, now go get Design for People by pre-ordering a copy on Kickstarter now.