Saving the world with graphic design

At WONGDOODY, I spent a year of my life working as the design lead on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation account. One initiative was the re-design of the main foundation brochure, which executive creative director Tracy Wong called “the most important project to ever come through the office.” Why? “Because we’re helping to save the world.” So no pressure.

We had four creative teams working on it and showed them 5 million different concepts. My favorite, naturally, was one that I designed with writing partner-in-crime Steve Malloch. The theme “Challenge — Opportunity” was based on a simple premise: at the intersection of challenge and opportunity lies the real work of finding solutions to the world’s biggest problems.